AQUINO, ROXAS WIN ANEW IN NEW UST POLLS

Consistent survey topnotchers Senators Benigno S. Aquino III and Mar Roxas, the standard-bearers of the Liberal Party, are the choice of students of the University of Sto. Tomas to become the country's next President and Vice-President.

In the February 16 to 19 Political Opinions of the Youth (POYS) survey held among 13,599 students from 12 colleges of UST, Aquino and Roxas bested their opponents in the national elections easily, reaffirming other mock polls in universities and colleges nationwide that showed the LP standard bearers as the top choice of students and the youth to win in the May 10 national elections.

Aquino and Roxas got 33.2% and 46.5% percentage ratings, respectively, to become the number one choice of UST students.

The survey was conducted as a rider to the University Central Student Council and college-level student council elections. It has a margin of error of less than 1%.

In the presidential race, Aquino was chosen by 33.2% of the UST students who joined the mock poll, followed by administration candidate Gilbert Teodoro with 32.5%, Sen. Dick Gordon with 15.4%, Sen. Manuel Villar with 7.2%, religious leader Bro. Eddie Villanueva with 1.5% and former President Joseph Estrada in last place with 1%.

Similarly, Roxas overwhelmingly won the vice-presidential pick of UST students by getting 46.5% of the mock votes cast, or 24.6% higher than second-placer Bayani Fernando, who was chosen by 21.9% of the students. In third place was Jejomar Binay, with 15.2%, followed by Loren Legarda with 6.4% and Edu Manzano, 1.2%.

Roxas' rating has been climbing since the first POYS survey held August last year, where he got a measly 4.9% rating. This jumped significantly to 46.3% in the December 2009 survey.

On the contrary, Legarda has been losing points. In the August 2009 survey, she got a 14.1 % rating, which then dropped to 9.4% in the December polls.

Aquino and Roxas had likewise won in two different surveys conducted separately among UST students in December 2009 and February this year.

In the survey conducted by the Varsitarian, the official student newspaper in UST, among 472 students randomly picked from January 18 to February 8, 36.4% chose Aquino as the candidate they will vote for President while 40.9% chose Roxas as their candidate for Vice-President if elections were to be held today.

In another survey called Political Opinion of the Youth Survey conducted by the Research Cluster for Culture, Education and Social Issues from December 14 to 18 last year among 2,147 respondents, 34.7% chose Aquino as the candidate theywill vote for President. The research cluster used a "close-ended" method where its chose from a list based on the Commission on Elections' official roster of candidates.

Roxas, on the other hand, was the top choice of 46.3% of the students who participated in the youth survey of the research cluster.

The Liberal Party standard-bearers have also been leading in all pre-election surveys conducted by independent polling firms like the Social Weather Stations and the Pulse Asia.