MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Boxing champ Manny Pacquiao has a strong chance of winning as senator, given his 97% awareness rating which got him a 46.9% preference rating in the latest Pulse Asia Research, Incorporated survey released Saturday, February 6.
Pacquiao, who is running under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance of Vice President Jejomar Binay, now ranks 8th to 10th places.
Pacquiao is among the senatorial candidates with a statistical chance of winning in the May 2016 elections if they were held at the time the survey was conducted. With the exception of former justice secretary Leila de Lima, all of the probable winners are either former or incumbent legislators who have a high awareness rating ranging from 97% to 76%.
Pacquiao had the highest awareness rating at 97% in the survey conducted from January 24-28, 2016.
Given his high 96% awareness rating, Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto of the Nationalist People’s Coalition topped the list of preferred senatorial candidates with his 68.8% rating.
Three of the top 5 choices for senator are either incumbent or former members of Congress from the administration-led Liberal Party (LP), the Pulse Asia survey showed. In October 2015, the LP was in talks with Pacquiao, seen as an effort to woo him to be part of its senatorial slate.
Pacquiao was an LP member before he joined the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) in 2012.
After Sotto, the other choice was LP’s Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan with 65.6%, landing him on 1st to 3rd place. The other probable winners in the top 5 are former senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (63.3%, 2nd to 5th places), Senator Ralph Recto (59.9%, 3rd to 5th places), and Senate President Franklin Drilon (58.8%, 3rd to 7th places).
The rest of the senatorial preferences are in the table below.
| SENATORIAL PREFERENCES | |||
| Aware | Voting for | Rank | |
| SOTTO, Vicente III “Tito” | 96 | 68.8 | 1-2 |
| PANGILINAN, Francis “Kiko” | 96 | 65.6 | 1-3 |
| LACSON, Panfilo “Ping” | 96 | 63.3 | 2-5 |
| RECTO, Ralph | 94 | 59.9 | 3-5 |
| DRILON, Franklin “Frank” | 96 | 58.8 | 3-7 |
| ZUBIRI, Juan Miguel “Migz” | 95 | 54.9 | 5-7 |
| OSMEÑA, Sergio III “Serge” | 94 | 54.8 | 5-7 |
| GORDON, Richard “Dick” | 92 | 48.6 | 8-10 |
| DE LIMA, Leila Norma Eulalia Josefa “Leila” | 94 | 48.2 | 8-10 |
| PACQUIAO, Emmanuel “Manny” | 97 | 46.9 | 8-10 |
| GUINGONA, Teofisto III “TG” | 88 | 41.4 | 11-13 |
| HONTIVEROS, Ana Theresia “Risa” | 85 | 41.1 | 11-13 |
| GATCHALIAN, Sherwin “Win” | 76 | 37.7 | 11-13 |
| VILLANUEVA, Joel “Tesdaman” | 80 | 31.1 | 14-15 |
| LAPID, Mark | 86 | 27.2 | 14-18 |
| DOMAGOSO, Francisco Moreno “Isko Moreno” | 88 | 24.5 | 15-18 |
| MANZANO, Eduardo “Edu” | 94 | 24.5 | 15-18 |
| TOLENTINO, Francis | 82 | 23.7 | 15-18 |
| ROMUALDEZ, Martin | 66 | 19.1 | 19-20 |
| COLMENARES, Neri | 65 | 17.8 | 19-20 |
| LACSAMANA, Vanessa Moreno “Alma Moreno” | 87 | 11.8 | 21-22 |
| OPLE, Susan “Toots” | 30 | 9.1 | 21-27 |
| AQUINO, Tonyboy | 21 | 8.6 | 22-27 |
| CHAVEZ, Mel | 18 | 7.5 | 22-30 |
| PETILLA, Carlos Jericho “Jericho” | 44 | 7.4 | 22-30 |
Pulse Asia said that of the 52 senatorial candidates included in the survey, 13 have a statistical chance of winning. The senatorial list was based on the Comelec’s list as of January 20, 2016.
Pulse Asia also said that on average, Filipinos have 10 preferred candidates for the Senate, while more than half, or about 56% already have a complete senatorial slate.
Across geographic areas and socio-economic classes, average number of preferred senatorial candidates range from 9 to 10, with a median of 11 to 12. Majorities in most geographic areas (61% to 63%) and socio-economic classes (56% to 61%) already have a complete slate for May. The exceptions are the rest of Luzon (49%) and classes ABC (50%). – Rappler.com
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