Opposition Senator Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III topped the list of Filipinos’ choice for President in the October survey conducted by research organization Ibon Foundation.

The survey question directed to respondents asked, “If elections were held today, who would you vote for?”

The respondents were first asked to list down their choice for President, while a separate item asked them to select a candidate from a list provided in the survey questionnaire.

The survey conducted from Oct. 2 to 8 among 1,496 respondents showed that Aquino ranked first in both survey items, with a percentage of 22.6 percent in the open question and 32.2 percent in the multiple choice.

In the open question survey, Aquino was followed by Senator Manuel Villar Jr. with 16.31 percent, Senator Francis Escudero with 9.56 percent, former President Joseph Estrada with 6.62 percent, and Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas II with 4.01 percent.

Meanwhile, in the multiple choice survey, Aquino was followed by Villar with 19.32 percent, Escudero with 12.10 percent, Estrada with 6.75 percent, and Senator Loren Legarda with 4.55 percent.

Aquino topped the survey in the National Capital Region (24.2 percent), Luzon (25.5 percent), Visayas (34.6 percent) and Mindanao (46.5 percent) in the multiple choice item.

In the open question survey, Aquino topped the list of presidential hopefuls in the NCR (16.13 percent), Visayas (28.10 percent), and Mindanao (35.98 percent).

Meanwhile, Villar was the most preferred presidential bet in Luzon with 17.82 percent, higher than the 14.59 percent garnered by Aquino in the area.

Ibon noted that Aquino, who entered the survey list for the first time in the three survey rounds this year, “may have cornered possible votes for Senators Villar and Escudero.”

Aquino announced his presidential candidacy on Sept. 9, while Estrada announced his candidacy last week.

Senators Villar and Escudero have yet to declare their candidacy.

Escudero used to lead the Ibon survey conducted in April with 13.17 percent for the open question, and 16.98 percent in the multiple choice survey.

Villar was in second place with 11.83 percent in the open question and 14.64 percent in the multiple choice question.

Meanwhile, in the July survey, Villar took the lead spot with 13.44 percent (open question), and 17.12 percent (multiple choice). Escudero ranked second with 11.37 percent (open question), and 15.32 percent (multiple choice) last July.

The October 2009 survey used a multistage probability sampling scheme and has a margin of error of plus or minus three percent.