Lakas-Kampi CMD standard bearer Gibo Teodoro has grabbed a commanding lead in the online mock elections for presidential candidates in the upcoming May elections conducted by the media giant Manila Bulletin by garnering a hefty 47% share of the total votes cast.
In response to the question of “Who will you vote as the next Philippine President in the May 10 elections next month?” which was posted on Bulletin’s mb.com.ph website, 27,521 or 47% chose Gibo. Liberal Party bet and senator Noynoy Aquino settled for a far second, with 15,499 or 27% of the votes cast, followed in third place by Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino standard bearer, former President Joseph Estrada with 5,543 or 10% of the votes.
Bagumbayan presidential bet and senator Richard Gordon landed in fourth place with 4,665 or 8% of the votes, while Nacionalista Party’s Senator Manny Villar was fifth with 2,452 or 4%. Television evangelist and Bangon Pilipinas candidate Eddie Villanueva garnered 3% or 1,918 of the total votes cast.
In similar mock elections conducted by broadcast media leader Radio Mindanao Network (RMN) through the month of March, Gibo was first place in one city and landed either in the No.2 or No. 3 positions in other parts of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
Asked who they would choose as the next president of the Philippines should elections be held tomorrow, residents of Sorsogon city surveyed from March 9 to 11, gave the former defense secretary 50 percent of their vote, Nacionalista Party bet Sen. Manny Villar, 25.8%, Liberal Party candidate Sen. Benigno Aquino III, 19.2 percent, and Partido ng Masang Pilipino standard-bearer Joseph Estrada, 3.3 percent.
The same survey, this time conducted from March 6 to 7 in Vigan City placed Gibo in second behind Villar, but ahead of Aquino, John Carlos Delos Reyes, Eddie Villanueva and Estrada.
Gibo placed third in RMN surveys (behind Aquino and Villar) in Pagadian City (conducted during the March 4-7 period); Cauayan, Isabela (March 2-6); Baguio City (March 4-5); Laoag City (March 5-6); Tuguegarao City (March 15-16); Ormoc City (March 6-7); San Carlos City (March 5-6); Dumaguete City (March 6-7); and Metro Bacolod (March 5-6).
The 1989 bar topnotcher and Harvard-trained lawyer edged out Estrada in third place in the RMN survey conducted for the rest of Luzon (March 2-16), and breathed heavily behind the necks of Villar and Aquino in the survey for the rest of the Visayas (March 2-9).
Gibo’s strong performance in the Bulletin, RMN and other recent independent surveys, herald the teamrolling weight of the ruling party’s machinery, which political observers say will make its presence felt during the official campaign for nationwide elections, according to former press secretary Mike Toledo, who is now Gibo’s spokesman and director of the G1BO 2010 Media Bureau.