By LORENA CANJA-NAVALLASCA
Process Foundation Panay Inc.
SAN JOSE, ANTIQUE. –While most San Jose voters want Liberal Party standard bearer Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to be the country’s next president, they prefer the local candidates of Lakas-Kampi-CMD to serve their town.
A local survey tha polled 1,400 registered voters here showed Aquino leading the presidential race with 48 percent votes, followed by Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party with 29 percent. For vice president, 46 percent voted for Sen. Manuel Roxas while 32 percent chose Loren Legarda.
Majority of the respondents, however, chose local candidates from the ruling Lakas-Kampi over their rivals: Rep. Exequiel B. Javier for governor (60 percent); his son Paolo Javier, representative for the lone district of Antique (45 percent); reelectionist San Jose mayor Jose de Buenvista Rony Molina (57 percent); and Sangguniang Bayan member and vice mayoral candidate Elmer Untaran (60 percent).
Paolo Javier’s opponents Salvacion Perez got 20 percent and Arturo Pacificador 10 percent. Exequiel’s rivals has similar scores: vice governor Rhodora Cadiao, 29 percent, and Jun Angor, 4 percent.
For the other posts, 28 percent favored vice mayor and mayoral candidate Angel Salazar while 35 percent went for Association of Barangay Captains chairperson John Banusing, who is running for vice mayor.
The survey was conducted on April 18-19 by a group chaired by Goldelino D. Chan to determine the confidence level of San Jose voters for selected national and local candidates.
The participants comprised 5 percent of the 28,000 total registered voters here.