De Castro Leads Poll, But Villar Closing In

By Rommel C. Lontayao, Reporter
The Manila Times
www.manilatimes.net

Vice President Noli de Castro topped the latest survey of likely presidential candidates for the 2010 elections, but former Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. narrowed the gap.

In a poll conducted by Pulse Asia from October 14 to 27, some 18 percent of the respondents said de Castro is their first choice as president in the next elections.

Villar and former President Joseph Estrada were tied for second, with 17 percent each.

And in a bittersweet development for Villar, who resigned as Senate president on Monday (see related front-page story), his popularity surged five percentage points from the last Pulse Asia survey that gave him only 12 percent.

Senator Francis Escudero was the fourth-most popular choice with 15 percent, followed by Senator Loren Legarda with 14 percent.

The other names picked by respondents include Senator Panfilo Lacson with 7 percent; Senator Manuel Roxas 2nd, 6 percent; and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay, Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority and evangelist Eddie Villanueva, each with 1 percent.

Regions and economic brackets

According to the survey, respondents in Metro Manila preferred Escudero (22 percent) over all other likely presidential candidates; followed by Villar (16 percent), Estrada (13 percent), Lacson (13 percent), de Castro (9 percent), Legarda (8 percent), Roxas (6 percent), Binay (5 percent) and Fernando (3 percent).

In the balance Luzon—which covers all regions on the island, except Metro Manila—Villar and de Castro each got 18 percent. Next came Estrada, 17 percent; Escudero, 16 percent; Legarda, 8 percent; and Roxas, 6 percent.

Respondents in the Visayas preferred de Castro (22 percent), followed by Legarda (21 percent), Villar (18 percent), Escudero (12 percent), Roxas (11 percent), Estrada (8 percent), Lacson (4 percent) and Villanueva (1 percent).

Estrada got his highest preference rating in Mindanao, where he was chosen by 30 percent of the respondents. De Castro followed with 20 percent; then Villar, 13 percent; Escudero, 11 percent; Legarda, 10 percent; Lacson and Roxas, 5 percent each; and Binay and Fernando, 1 percent each.

Among respondents belonging to the upper socioeconomic brackets, Pulse Asia said Villar got 19 percent, followed by Escudero (17 percent), de Castro (14 percent), Roxas (12 percent), Estrada (10 percent), Lacson (9 percent), Legarda (8 percent), Fernando (4 percent) and Binay (1 percent).

For the middleclass, both Villar and de Castro had the highest preference ratings with 18 percent each. They were followed by Escudero (17 percent), Estrada (14 percent), Legarda (12 percent), Lacson (8 percent), Roxas (5 percent), Binay (1 percent), Fernando (1 percent) and Villanueva (also 1 percent).

Estrada remained the most popular among the masses, as he got 27 percent of the respondents from class E. They preferred him over de Castro (19 percent), Legarda (18 percent), Villar (14 percent), Escudero (10 percent), Lacson (5 percent) and Roxas (5 percent).

The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percent in the national level, and plus or minus 6 percent in the regional levels, Pulse Asia said.

Five Poems by Danton Remoto

In the Graveyard Danton Remoto The walls round the graveyard Are ancient and cracked. The moss is too thick they look dark. The paint on my grandfather’s tomb Has the color of bone. Two yellow candles we lighted, Then we uttered our prayers. On my left, somebody’s skull Stares back at me: a black Nothingness in the eyes. The graveyard smells of dust Finer than the pore of one’s skin— Dust mixed with milk gone sour. We are about to depart When a black cat darts Across our path, quickly, With a rat still quivering In its mouth. * Immigration Border Crossing (From Sadao, Thailand to Bukit Changloon, Malaysia) Danton Remoto On their faces that betray No emotion You can read the unspoken Questions: Are you really A Filipino? Why is your skin Not the color of padi ? Your eyes, Why are they slanted Like the ones Who eat babi ? And your palms, Why are there no callouses Layered like th...

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BY DANTON REMOTO, abs-sbnNEWS.com/Newsbreak | 10/16/2008 1:00 AM REMOTE CONTROL In 1977, my mentor, the National Artist for Literature and Theater Rolando S. Tinio, said: “It is too simple-minded to suppose that enthusiasm for Filipino as lingua franca and national language of the country necessarily involves the elimination of English usage or training for it in schools. Proficiency in English provides us with all the advantages that champions of English say it does – access to the vast fund of culture expressed in it, mobility in various spheres of the international scene, especially those dominated by the English-speaking Americans, participation in a quality of modern life of which some features may be assimilated by us with great advantage. Linguistic nationalism does not imply cultural chauvinism. Nobody wants to go back to the mountains. The essential Filipino is not the center of an onion one gets at by peeling off layer after layer of vegetable skin. One’s experience with onio...

Taboan: Philippine Writers' Festival 2009

By John Iremil E. Teodoro, Contributor The Daily Tribune 02/26/2009 A happy and historical gathering of wordsmiths with phallocentric and Manila-centric overtones *** This is from my friend, the excellent poet and critic John Iremil Teodoro, who writes from the magical island of Panay. I wish I have his energy, his passion and his time to write. Writing needs necessary leisure. But this budding, bading politician has shifted his directions. On this day alone, I have to attend not one, not two, but three political meetings. And there goes that new poem out of the window. Sigh. *** According to Ricardo de Ungria, a poet of the first magnitude and the director of Taboan: The Philippine International Writers Festival 2009, “the original idea was for a simple get together of writers from all over the country who have been recipients, directly or indirectly, of grants and awards from the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). What happened last Feb. 11 to 13 was far from being ...

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