1,000 respondents BACOLOD UNIVERSITY STUDENTS PICK DUTERTE OVER ROXAS, BINAY

By Manny Piñol

Bacolod City – Young voters of Bacolod City believe that Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte could best address problems of criminality, insurgency, drugs and corruption in the Philippines today.

In a survey conducted by the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos Supreme Student Government (UNO-R SSG) with 1,000 respondents Duterte easily bested two other presidential prospects – Interior and Local Governments Secretary Mar Roxas and Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The survey conducted from Jan. 9 to 14 posed two questions to the 1,000 respondents randomly selected by the UNO-R SSG surveyors.

The first question was: “Who among the three personalities stated below could best address the criminality, insurgency, drug trafficking, corruption and poverty problems besetting the Philippines today?”

The second question was: “If the Presidential election is held today, who would you vote (for) to be the next President among the three personalities herein stated?”

The survey form listed the names of Vice President Binay, Secretary Roxas and Mayor Duterte.

The results released recently and certified by Christian R. Miran, President of UNO-R SSG and Kara Grace Demavivas, Secretary of External Student Welfare and Development showed Duterte handily winning over Roxas and Binay.

For the first question Mayor Duterte garnered 44 percent, Sec. Roxas 32 percent while Vice President Binay garnered only 18%. There was a 4 percent abstention.

The same number of respondents, 440, said they would vote for Duterte for President, 360 for Roxas and 160 for Binay.

It was a surprising result for a survey conducted in a place where the family of Sec. Roxas’ mother, the Aranetas own the Ma-Ao sugar mill in the nearby city of Bago and thus considered a bailiwick of the Interior Secretary.

The results were all the more surprising because prior to his Federalism Forum at the Bays Center in Bacolod City yesterday, Mayor Duterte has never been to the area in an official function.

Yesterday, lawyer Jesus V. Hinlo, Jr., head of the Mayor Rody Roa Duterte (MRRD) movement in Negros Occidental turned over a copy of the results of the survey to Mayor Duterte during the Federalism Forum held at the Bay’s Center in downtown Bacolod City which was attended by local officials led by Mayor Monico Puentebella, civic leaders and students.

After the Federalism Forum, Mayor Duterte proceeded to the L’Fisher Hotel to speak in the Rotary District Convention with about 300 Rotarians from the Visayas and Western Mindanao.

The warm welcome and reception given to the Davao City Mayor also validated the results of the survey showing the preference of the Negrenses for a strong leader who could address drugs and criminality and who is not tainted by issues of corruption.

(Photos caption: Mayor Duterte in the Bays Center Federalism Forum with Mayor Puentebella; the big crowd at the Bays Center; Mayor Duterte with Rotary Governor Jude Doctora; Mayor Duterte speaks before Rotarians in Bacolod City. Roselyn Padilla/Romirose Boloron)