Reposted in its entirety from the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
Aquino, Roxas top Davao survey
January 06, 2010 19:51:00
Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines—Is the Queen City of the South going for Sen. Benigno “Noynoy’’ Aquino III?
A recent survey released by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte showed that Aquino remained the top choice of Davao City residents among the presidential candidates in the May 2010 elections.
Lawyer Edwin Lacierda, Aquino campaign spokesperson, on Wednesday said the survey, conducted on Dec. 17 by Pulso Davao, showed that Aquino was the choice of 45.44 percent of respondents and was followed by former president Joseph Estrada, who got 21.44 percent.
Nacionalista Party standard bearer Manuel Villar, who is second to Aquino in national surveys, received only 16.71 percent while administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro got 5.64 percent. The survey had 6,600 respondents.
“This is consistent with the Pulse Asia and SWS (national) survey results which put Noynoy on top although in this survey, Manny Villar is a distant third … former president Joseph Estrada … is in second place,” Lacierda said in an interview on Wednesday.
He said the survey results were important because Davao City had 797,214 registered voters as of last year, making it one of the most vote-rich urban areas in Mindanao.
Aquino’s Liberal Party also got a boost in the city when Duterte expressed his support for LP vice-presidential candidate, Sen. Mar Roxas.
Lacierda said the survey also showed that Roxas was the leading vice-presidential candidate in the city, getting the support of 47 percent of the voters.
He was followed by NP vice-presidential bet Sen. Loren Legarda, who got 24 percent; Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay (14 percent); actor Edu Manzano (4 percent), and former Metro Manila Development Authority chair Bayani Fernando (2 percent), Lacierda added.
Meanwhile, Lacierda said that Aquino also received the highest number of votes in mock elections held in schools in Iligan and Bicol.
He said 750 students and 500 alumni participated in the mock elections on December 17 at the St. Michael’s College of Iligan and Aquino garnered 350 votes among the students.
Villar had 240, Estrada (120), Teodoro (15). For the vice-presidential race, Roxas had 548 votes, Legarda (120) Binay (52) and Manzano (29), Lacierda said.
Among the alumni, Aquino got 64 percent of the vote, Teodoro (27 percent), and Villar (nine percent), he added.
Earlier in Bicol, the Camarines Norte State College conducted its own mock elections on Dec. 15 with 1,465 votes duly counted.
Again, Aquino led with 322 votes and was followed by Villar (178 votes), Teodoro (104), Estrada (61), and Sen. Richard Gordon and evangelist Eddie Villanueva tying at 32 votes each, Lacierda said.
He added that for vice president, Roxas got 385 votes with Legarda getting 178, Binay (81), Manzano (47), and Fernando (41).
“This shows that our message against corruption is resonating among the youth. Their idealism is alive and kicking,” Lacierda said.
I have a vision that Noynoy Aquino will be the next President of the Philippines. The same vision I had with his mom former President Cory Aquino. I had a vision of seven coup in the clouds at Santo Domingo Church. I had also a vision of Laban sign in the clouds at Cordillera Street in Quezon City. I had also a vision of Jesus Christ at Jollibee Restaurant. I hope and pray that my new vision will be pushed through, Amen.
Noynoy and Mar’s consistent big leads in credible surveys are positive signs for Phil., this means majority of pinoys are shouting Tama Na ! Sobra Na ! Palitan Na! against gma, corruption and impunity. However, with some sectors still influenced and misled by villar’s infomercial, also shows many pinoys need to be educated and their level of analysis and logic raised. Simple observation would show that villar is running mainly to protect his illegal wealth, recover his billions of campaign expenses and continue gma’s evil system of betraying Pilipinos. In other words, villar is bad for the Phil. or one could also say that villar is an enemy of the Pilipinos. Villar have already committed many crimes against the people, like the C5 scam, his Capitol Bank’s bankruptcy, massive landgrabbing cases, and many other crimes using his gov’t position.
Election after elections, what do we hear from ordinary people. Its the same old story, rising cost of water, electricity,food and fuel, unemployment,healthcare and medical services,cost of transportation crime rates are getting high,and above all ill-equipped and enadequate disaster and relief operations, these are just the numerous complaints we repeatedly hear on the economic and welfare side of our lives.On the political front, my god! we see and hear a lot of scams, scandals, whistleblowers trying to expose big anomalies but senate and congressional hearings and inquiries lead to nowhere but thrown into the archives of silence.Maguindanao massacre on of the most deadly and horrific crime we just recently see but not those silently liquidated and assasinated by powerful warlords where until now the cries for justice haven’t yet achieved by the families of the slain victims. The Maguindanao massacre is just one high profilecrimes that we should watch and monitor whether it would lead to final guilty verdict. But for the Ampatuans and the families of the slain victims this just the beginning of a very long winding road to justice. In this country you cannot just jail and convict the rich, powerful and influential people. For Noynoy and Mar this is just a long and mountainous journey towards the the summit for change and reforms if ever given the chance to rule the nation.But all is moving well and riding high towards victory for this two leading presidentiables. But victory cannot be achieved easily without vigilance in monitoring our polls to see to it that we are not cheated this time around.