U.N.A. starts ‘sinking’ with only 9 Senate bets

Team PNoy has 9 bets in Magic 12, opposition only 3

MANILA – More bad news for the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) as it begins to “shrink and sink” with only nine remaining senatorial candidates.
After the coalition removed former common candidates Sens. Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero and Ma. Grace Poe Llamanzares from its slate due to their failure to join their campaign sorties, at least two of their candidates – reelectionist Sen. Gregorio “Gringo” Honasan and Rep. Juan Ponce “Jackie” Enrile Jr. – have dropped out of the Senate “Magic 12” based on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) pre-election survey.
The survey, conducted last February 15-17, 2013 and first published in BusinessWorld, found Enrile and Honasan out of the top 12 candidates for senator for the first time in its surveys.
Enrile, son of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, is now ranked at 13th place from 8th-9th in the last poll; while Honasan placed 15th from 5th-6th. SWS said.
Honasan and Enrile were replaced in the SWS Magic 12 by Team PNoy candidates, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV and Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara. Team PNoy now dominates the SWS survey ranking with 9 candidates in contention as against UNA’s only three bets.
According to the survey report, the young Aquino, a cousin of the President, climbed tod 9-10 in the latest survey while Angara, son of Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, placed 11-12.
Re-electionist senators Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero and Alan Peter Cayetano continued to dominate the race, occupying the top 3 spots.
Legarda scored 64 percent in the survey, Escudero has 62 percent while Cayetano got 58 percent.
Former Las Pinas Rep. Cynthia Villar improved to 4th place, from 8th-9th in the previous survey.
Ma. Grace Poe Llamanzares, a guest candidate of Team PNoy, made the biggest jump from 10th place in the last survey to 5th place. She is tied with fellow Team PNoy candidate Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel.
Nancy Binay, daughter of Vice-President Jejomar Binay, improved her rank to 7th place, from 9th to 10th previously.
Re-electionist Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV also improved his ranking, from 10-11 in the previous survey to 8th place.
San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito, son of former President Estrada, dropped to 9th place from the previous 5th.
Former senator Juan Miguel Zubiri rounded out the Magic 12, dropping from 7th place to 11-12.
Falling below the top 12, but still within contention, according to the SWS, were Enrile, former senator Maria Consuelo “Jamby” A. Madrigal (LP) and Honasan in 13th, 14th and 15th places, respectively.
Others who barely made it to the list and may still be in contention are formers Sen. Ramon Magsasay Jr. and Richard Gordon.
Team PNoy spokesman Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, meanwhile, expressed elation over the survey results, saying it’s a clear trend towards a Team PNoy victory in the May 13 elections.
“What’s significant is that the Team PNoy candidates who are not in the Magic 12 are closely within striking distance.” Quimbo pointed out.
Former president Joseph Estrada blamed the Aquino administration’s linking UNA’s Big 3 – Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senate President Enrile and himself – to controversial issues for the UNA senatorial candidates downsliding in the survey.
“Iniisa-isa na kami (They’re going after us one by one),” Estrada said.
Enrile has been criticized for unequally distributing “Christmas cash gifts” to 21 other senators with four of them getting only P250,000 each, while the rest were given P1.6 million each.
Enrile’s pet project, the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, has also been put in the spotlight for the importation of hundreds of used cars and vans for resale in the country despite a ban.
Binay’s wife Elenita is facing graft charges in the Sandiganbayan over the allegedly fraudulent bidding for a P72-million supply contract when she was Makati mayor in 2001.
The Vice President himself is being linked to a controversial house project when he was still the mayor.
Estrada’s problems include running for Manila mayor against incumbent Mayor Alfredo Lim, a member of the President Aquino’s Liberal Party (LP), and the disqualification cases filed against him and his running mate, Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, and five councilors on their slate were arrested over a bingo affair.
The February 2013 SWS-BW pre-election survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 registered voters nationwide. The error margins used were ±3% for national and ±6 for area percentages. In the latest poll, some 2% of the respondents either had no answer or were undecided, similar to the previous month’s result.