AQUINO, ROXAS CLOSE IN ON MAY 10 POLL VICTORY
VILLAR, LEGARDA RATINGS PLUNGE DESPITE EXPENSIVE BLACK PROP

With only 34 days before the May 10 national elections, Liberal Party standard bearers Senators Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas continued to move upward in the victory ladder as they zoomed past their fiercest rivals Nacionalista bets Manuel Villar and Loren Legarda, whose ratings nose-dived in the latest Pulse Asia survey.

Aquino and Roxas withstood the onslaught of expensive black propaganda launched against both of them and maintained their lead over Villar and Legarda in the March 21 to 28 survey among 3,000 respondents conducted nationwide by Pulse Asia.

In its latest survey, Pulse Asia said Aquino widened his lead to 12% over Villar, getting a 37% rating compared to Villar's 25%, which is a 4% drop from his February figure of 29%.

In the vice presidential race, Roxas further broadened his lead with a 43% rating over Legarda's 23%, which is likewise a 4% drop from her 27% February rating.

Aquino and Roxas' lead over the Villar-Legarda tandem cut across all sectors of society and covered the entire nation - the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions and the National Capital Region.

Aquino led over Villar in NCR with a 42% rating compared to the latter's low 17% while in Luzon, he was chosen by 33% of the respondents compared to the 26% who chose Villar. In the Visayas region, the LP presidential bet was picked by 41% compared to Villar's 30%; and in Mindanao, he was the choice of 37% and the NP bet was only chosen by 23%.

It was a similar pattern in the vice presidential race, where Roxas was the top choice of respondents from the NCR, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. In the NCR, Roxas was picked by 40% of the respondents, while Legarda fared poorly with only a 15% rating. In Luzon, 39% of the respondents chose Roxas while only 25% went for Legarda. In Visayas, he lorded over Legarda with 51% of voters saying they wuld vote for him compared to 21% who chose Legarda. Roxas was also the top pick in Mindanao where 45% of Mindanao respondents chose him over the 24% for the NP bet.

Roxas' high rating in Mindanao was despite the 'fatwa' issued against him by a group of Muslim scholars for opposing the approval of the Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) between the government the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

The drop in Legarda's survey ratings came following her poor performance during ABS-CBN's March 21 'Harapan: The Vice Presidential Debate', where live audience, television viewers and on-line users said she was the least believable among the vice presidential candidates running in the May 10 elections. In the same debate, viewers rated Roxas as the most believable candidate.

Aquino and Roxas also won the support of all sectors of society, getting high preference ratings from the Classes A,B and C with 49% and 54%, respectively; D class with 37% and 43%, respectively; and E class, with 34% and 40%, respectively.

The result of Pulse Asia's presidential race: Joseph Estrada, 18%; Gilbert Teodoro, 7%; and Sen. Richard Gordon and Bro. Eddie Villanueva, both with 2%.

For the vice presidential race: Jejomar Binay, 19%; Bayani Fernando, 3%; Edu Manzano, 2%; Perfecto Yasay, 1%; and Jay Sonza, 0.5%.