ILOILO City – A few days to go before the May 13 elections, Mayor Jose Espinosa III has firmed up his lead over other candidates for city mayor, according to the latest survey of the Statistics Research Center conducted on April 27 and 28, 2019.
Espinosa is leading with 46 percent. Cong. Jerry Treñas came in second with 35 percent while Dr. Pacita Gonzalez ranked third with 16 percent.
Other candidates for city mayor and undecided voters accounted for 3.5 percent.
Pro-poor advocacies by the incumbent mayor, particularly the social outreach program “Pag-ulikid sang Syudad”, ranked high in voter recall.
Espinosa also received high approval ratings for his anti-corruption, anti-crime and anti-illegal drugs campaign.
On the other hand, Treñas is saddled with major character issues like his political ideology, having switched to three political parties in the last three years.
He was with the Liberal Party in 2016, with the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) in 2017, and with the National Unity Party in 2018.
The Sandiganbayan also suspended Treñas for 90 days last year in connection with an anti-graft case while he was still the city mayor.
He is also facing several graft complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman.
Meanwhile, Mayor Espinosa’s demonstration of political will received high trust ratings among voters. He rid the Jaro Plaza of unsightly ukay-ukay and other ambulant vendors; pegged the operation of night spots up to 2 a.m. only and acted decisively on the state of water calamity in affected city barangays.
The multi-stage probability sampling method of the Statistics Research Center survey covered residents of Iloilo City who are registered voters, 18 years or older and conducted through face to face interview.
It had a sample size of 720 respondents from 72 barangay sample spots with 95 percent level of confidence and plus-minus 3 percent margin of error.
A “Usage, Attitude & Image (UAI)” survey by the Statistics Research Center on March 19 and 20, 2019 showed that 82 percent of the respondents agreed with Espinosa in seeking the Iloilo City mayorship instead of running for congressman this May 13, 2019 election./PN
