MANILA: Ferdinand Marcos Jr has maintained his wide lead in the Philippines presidential election race in a new survey released on Monday, but some political observers say the game may not be over for closest rival Leni Robredo.

Support for Marcos, the son and namesake of the ousted dictator who ruled the Philippines for two decades, remained at 56pc ahead of next week’s ballot, while Robredo, the incumbent vice president, slipped to 23pc from 24pc a month ago in the Pulse Asia surveys.

Multi world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and Manila mayor Francisco Domagoso had 7pc and 4pc support respectively. The election takes place on May 9.

The Pulse Asia survey of 2,400 people was conducted between April 16 to 21, which political analyst Temario Rivera said may not have registered the late flurry of support for Robredo, who has drawn crowds of tens of thousands of people in rallies in recent days.

“We might be looking at a situation when surveys cannot fully capture what is actually happening on the ground,” Rivera said.

That includes a series of endorsements or late switches of allegiance in favour of Robredo, 57, from mayors, candidates, governors and politicians in the past few weeks, he said.

Marcos, 64, has said he would not let his strong showing in polls distract him from work needed to be done to ensure victory.

Published in Dawn,May 3rd, 2022