MANILA, March 22 (PNA) – Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, who said the country’s next president should be female, has topped an online newspaper survey for possible female presidential candidates in 2016.
In an official survey by inquirer.net, Santiago ranked No. 1 with 83 percent of the votes, leading by a “mile margin” over second-ranked fellow lady Senator Grace Poe who garnered 8 percent of the more than 23,000 netizens.
Santiago also placed No. 1 in another online survey to determine the social media ranking of 24 senators.
In the online social media poll, Santiago was recorded with 1.3 million fans on Facebook and 649,000 followers on Twitter.
Santiago, who has been dubbed “social media superstar,” showed her superstar power last Friday as she acknowledged a prolonged, noisy ovation from some 2,000 people at the graduation ceremonies of the Rogationist College at Silang, Cavite.
Santiago led the social media poll by “kilometric margin” over second placer Senator Francis Escudero who has 463,699 fans and Alan Peter Cayetano with 382,480 fans in third spot.
Poe ranked only sixth behind Senators Loren Legarda and Juan Ponce Enrile, having garnered 154,092 fans, followed by Senators Aquilino Pimentel III, JV Ejercito, Pia Cayetano, Cynthia Villar, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Teofisto Guigona III, Gregorio Honasan II and Nancy Binay.
Other senators, such as Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Sergio Osmeña III, Paolo Benigno Aquino III, and Juan Edgardo Angara did not have an official fan page but had personal Facebook pages.
Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Lito Lapid, Ramon Revilla Jr., and Vicente Sotto III did not have official or personal Facebook pages.
Santiago also dominated Twitter as the senator with the highest number of followers, with 649,000, followed again by Escudero with 176,118 followers.
Santiago ran and lost in the 1992 presidential race to former President Fidel V. Ramos. (PNA)