The latest SWS survey results are out and it looks like there’s a change of momentum. Buoyed by his aggressive leadership against the pre-need debacle of Legacy, Senator Mar Roxas surged with +5 rating points for the month of February. Note that majority of the media came out on March so we can expect him to soar even further when the next results are out. Another big gainer is Senator Escudero, who has also been harping on the same issue. (more…)

PULSE ASIA recently released their latest survey results on the upcoming 2010 Presidential Elections. It’s very interesting to note that the gap between the candidates have been shrinking for past months. If we were to trust the survey, then there is no clear winner at this point and it’s really anyone’s ballgame. Vice President Noli De Castro still leads at 19%, closely followed by Senator Chiz Escudero at 18%, Former President Estrada at 16%, Senator Manny Villar at 14%, and Senator Loren Legarda at 12%. (more…)

This is in response to a recent article published on Inquirer.Net about how politicians overspent in the 2007 Senatorial Elections for their media campaigns. This was pointed out by election watchdog group called Pera’t Pulitika. Apparently they got their data from a credible source - AC Nielsen, one of the premiere research agencies in the world. The cap is P135M and that’s already a lot of cash to spend on media if you ask me. According to the article, Prospero Pichay led the group of over-spenders hitting an estimated media spending of P224M. The other senators who overspent were Villar, Arroyo, Angara, Defensor, and Legarda. The total combined spending of these 6 senators reached more than P700M, and that’s just for a Senatorial campaign in a 90-day period. With this in mind, I pose 3 questions. The first one is how the hell will these politicians get an ROI for this major investment? The second one is how much more money will be spent on 2010 when we see some of the richest men on this country battle it out for the Presidency? Lastly, why weren’t the violators sanctioned? (more…)

Senate President Manny Villar recently announced that he was open to the idea of having a coalition with the administration party LAKAS for the upcoming 2010 elections. I wonder if there are on-going negotiations already in the background. I’m pretty certain that VP Noli De Castro is thinking of running for the Presidency given his strong showing in the surveys. Will he give up his ambitions to give Villar a crack at the Presidency using the administration machinery? What does he get in return if ever this happens? This is an interesting development that we will have to monitor as the weeks pass by. It’s only a matter of time before the battle lines are clearly drawn for 2010.

The latest SWS survey on the 2010 potential presidents was published in an article in the Inquirer today (February 14, 2008). Personally, I agree with the results and I believe that 2010 will be about 4-5 people similar to the 1992 Presidential Elections. It won’t be a polarized fight anymore like in 2004 when it was clearly administration versus the opposition (FPJ vs GMA). What’s good to note is that De Castro really doesn’t have a strong lead. It’s anyone’s ball game between the 4 top bets. Check out the survey results after the jump. (more…)

In a recent survey done by the SWS, De Castro and Villar both got very high ratings. Is this indicative of the 2010 elections? The answer is “No”. The survey was a performance-satisfaction rating and not a “Will I vote for you in 2010″ survey. De Castro had a satisfaction rating of +41 while Senate President Villar enjoyed a +59 rating. Both of their respective ratings climbed versus their previous performance ratings last quarter. (more…)