42 days until election day, Aquino still leads in pre-election surveys

With a little more than a month to go until May 10, Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Benigno S. "Noynoy" Aquino III still leads in the pre-election surveys. Two broadsheet publications on Monday released the results of two polls that show the Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer is ahead in the presidential race.

In the latest survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) printed on Monday's edition of Business World, Aquino leads at 37%, 9 percentage points ahead of his closest rival, Nacionalista Party (NP) bet Manuel Bamba Villar Jr , who trails behind at 28%.

Villar dropped 6 percentage points lower than his score during the February survey of the SWS. Deposed President Erap Estrada came in at third with 19%, while administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro remains in single-digits, holding at 6%.

The survey was conducted last March 19-22, on 2,100 registered voters nationwide, and showed that Aquino leads the race in terms of both socio-economic classes and geographic area, overtaking Villar in both the balance of Luzon and among classes ABC, and E.

Also on Monday, The Manila Standard Today released the results of its pre-election survey, wherein Aquino, scoring at 39%, has taken a 13% lead over Villar, who scored at 26%. Estrada and Teodoro garnered 17% and 6%, respectively.

The Standard survey also indicates a surge in Aquino's popularity over the regions and the classes, noting that "[a]mong the very poor Aquino held a 12 point lead over Villar, or 39 percent to 27 percent."

According to Pedro Laylo, the Standard's resident pollster, "[s]upport for Villar is in the downtrend in urban areas specifically in the National Capital Region where he lost seven points while Aquino added eight more points."

Meanwhile in the vice-presidential race, Aquino's running mate, Sen. Manuel "Mar" Roxas, also enjoys a commanding lead in both the SWS and the Standard surveys, scoring at 42% and 39, respectively. His closest rival, the NP's Loren Legarda, came in at 25% in the SWS survey, and at 29% in this month's Standard survey.

LP General Campaign Manager Florencio "Butch" Abad attributes Aquino's surge to strategic focus provided by former Senator Serge Osmeña, who has recently taken a leave of absence to focus on his own senatorial campaign, and to the tireless assistance of Aquino's hundreds of thousands of dedicated volunteers.

Aquino has been campaigning on a platform of good governance and freedom from the culture of corruption that is a major cause of poverty in the country. Abad sees Aquino's constant lead in the pre-election polls as indication that "the Filipino people continue to believe in Senator Noynoy Aquino's ability to bring about a clean and compassionate government that will put an end to corruption and alleviate poverty."