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Former president Rodrigo Duterte leads the proclamation rally of the 8-man oppositon candidates for the 2025 midterm elections, at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City, on February 13.
Jire Carreon/Rappler
Pulse Asia conducted the survey weeks before the dramatic turn of events that now dominate headlines: the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte
MANILA, Philippines — Longtime Duterte aide and reelectionist Senator Bong Go gained close to 8 percentage points to tie for the top spot in the latest senatorial preference survey of pollster Pulse Asia Research Incorporated.
According to the February 2025 survey, which was released on Thuesday, March 13, Go now ties with ACT-CIS Representative Erwin Tulfo for the top spot in the 2025 Senate race if elections were held during the survey period.
The survey was held from February 20 to 26, or weeks after the official campaign period for national posts kicked off on February 11.
In the previous January 2025 Pulse Asia survey, Go ranked a distant second to Tulfo, trailing behind by over 12 percentage points.
While Go went up almost 8 percentage points, Tulfo, a candidate of the administration’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas, saw a 6-point drop in his preference rating.
Trailing Go and Tulfo in the so-called “winners’ circle” or those with statistical changes of winning at the time the survey was taken are the following:
- Former Senate president Tito Sotto (3-4)
- Reelectionist Senator Bong Revilla (3-6)
- Reelectionist Senator Ronald dela Rosa (4-7)
- TV show host Willie Revillame (4-9)
- TV personality Ben Tulfo (5-11)
- Former senator Manny Pacquiao (6-12)
- Reelectionist Senator Lito Lapid (6-13)
- Makati Mayor Abby Binay (7-13)
- Reelectionist Senator Pia Cayetano (7-13)
- House Deputy Speaker Camille Villar (8-13)
- Reelectionist senator Ping Lacson (9-13)
The survey was held weeks before the dramatic turn of events that now dominate headlines: the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte, and the Marcos administration’s decision to turn him over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he faces a crimes against humanity case.
Sources and interlocutors had earlier told Rappler that despite being out of power and mostly keeping a low profile after his presidency, Duterte has managed to keep his endorsement powers.
While Marcos has thrown his support behind a 12-person slate, Duterte is endorsing only 9 candidates.
Aside from Go, Dela Rosa — former Philippine police chief “architect” of the war on drugs that Duterte now has to answer for before the ICC — went up by three percentage points. While the rise would normally be negligible, Dela Rosa also seems to have benefitted by the drop in voters’ preference for other senatorial candidates.
Winners, losers
Just like the January 2025 iteration of the survey, 8 of those in the “winners’ circle” were candidates of the Marcos-led Alyansa para sa Pagbabago slate.
One of the administration’s bets, presidential sister and reelectionist Senator Imee Marcos exited the “winners’ circle” in the latest preference survey, as her preference numbers fell by 13 percentage points from the last survey in January.
Senate return hopefuls Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan occupied the 15-17 slot, while former interior secretary Benhur Abalos ranked 15-19.
Most of former president Duterte’s choice bets seemed to enjoy a boost in their preference numbers, although most of them were still far from the winners circle.
Next to Go and Dela Rosa, only former action star and Duterte loyalist Phillip Salvador comes closest to a chance of winning in the February 2025 survey — although he ranked a distant 17-20 with preference of only 20.7%. – Rappler.com
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