Three days before Filipinos go to polls, leading presidential aspirant Senator Noynoy Aquino appeared headed for the biggest landslide win in Philippine election history. In the final pre-election nationwide survey released on Friday by BusinessWorld-Social Weather Stations (BW-SWS), Aquino skyrocketed with a huge 22-percentage point lead over the new second placer, former president Joseph Estrada. In the May 2 to 3 survey, Aquino got the votes of 42 percent of the respondents while Estrada had 20 percent. Erstwhile second placer Senator Manny Villar dropped to third with a 19 percent rating. Poll experts said that if Aquino's 42 percent rating translates into actual votes this Monday, the Liberal Party (LP) bet would surpass Estrada's landslide win in 1998, the most lopsided victory in Philippine election history, when the former actor won 39 percent of the people's votes. Aquino scored a 4 percent increase in his rating from the 38 percent he got in the April 16-19 survey of BW-SWS. “The results gave Aquino the lead across all geographic areas and social classes,” the survey said. In the case of Estrada, his rating went up by 3 percentage points from 17 percent in April 16-19. Meanwhile, Villar's rating continued to plummet as the Nacionalista Party (NP) bet suffered an 8 percentage point decline from the 26 percent rating he got in the April 16-19 SWS survey. In the March 28-30 survey, Villar had a 29 percent rating. The Arroyo administration bet, Gilbert Teodoro, continued to remain a far fourth placer with just a 9 percent rating. Evangelist Eddie Villanueva was fifth with 3 percent, followed by Senator Richard Gordon with 2 percent. Senator Jamby Madrigal, JC de los Reyes, and Nick Perlas still had ratings below 1 percent. The survey showed Aquino leading across all geographic areas and social classes. He gained 8 points in Metro Manila (to 43 percent), 6 points in Mindanao (39 percent), 4 points in the Balance of Luzon (41 percent), and 1 point in the Visayas (47 percent). Estrada's score also went up owing to an eight-point gain in Mindanao (to 30 percent), one-point gain in Metro Manila (26 percent) and also in the rest of Luzon (18 percent), and an unchanged 7 percent in the Visayas. Villar suffered a 16-point debacle in Mindanao to 15 percent, an eight-point loss to 10 percent in Metro Manila and a five-point drop to 20 percent in the Balance of Luzon. His support in the Visayas stayed at 25 percent. Among the ABC class, Estrada gained eight points (to 14 percent) while Aquino and Villar lost 9 points each to 44 percent and 13 percent, respectively. Among the class D or the masses, Aquino posted a 6-point gain to 44 percent. Estrada gained 3 points to 19 percent, while Villar slid by seven points to 18 percent. Among the class E, Teodoro posted a 6-point increase to 12 percent, Aquino was up 3 points to 35 percent. Estrada's score was unchanged at 23 percent while Villar lost 10 points to 21 percent. The survey had 2,400 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent. Reacting to the latest survey results, Aquino said he was “pleased and humbled that the Filipino people has decided to cast their lot” on him. Estrada's camp claimed that in their own internal survey, the former president was just 5 points behind Aquino.
