MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Senate President Franklin Drilon leads 50 senatorial candidates in the latest ABS-CBN survey conducted by Pulse Asia Research, Incorporated from April 26 to 29.

He used to share the top spot with fellow reelectionist Senator Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, who is now ranked 2nd to 3rd places.

Drilon enjoys an overall voter preference of 47.8%, while Sotto has a 43.5% preference rating.

A total of 13 candidates “have a statistical chance” of winning a Senate seat, according to the survey released on Wednesday, May 4.

As in the last commissioned poll, nearly all of the probable winners are either former or current members of Congress.

Five are members of the ruling Liberal Party, 4 are independent candidates, two are from the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and one each from the United Nationalist Alliance and Akbayan party list.

Next to Sotto, 3 former senators were in 2nd to 8th places:

• Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan (41.9%, 2nd to 4th places)
• Juan Miguel Zubiri (38.9%, 3rd to 7th places)
• Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (38.5%, 4th to 8th places)

Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes said registered Filipino voters are naming 7 preferred senatorial candidates on average.

The survey results also showed that with just over a week before the May 9 elections, only one out of every 3 registered voters (33%) has a complete Senate slate.

The nationwide survey, which was conducted among 4,000 registered voters, has a ± 1.5% margin of error at the 95% confidence level. – Rappler.com

Read other results from the same ABS-CBN survey:

• Amid bank controversy, Duterte keeps survey lead
• Robredo, Marcos top ABS-CBN vice presidential poll