Senator Manuel Villar Jr. topped the list of potential presidential candidates whom respondents want to succeed President Arroyo in 2010, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results showed.

In the nationwide survey fielded over June 19 to 22 among 1,500 respondents, results showed that Villar gained the nod of 33 percent of those asked in June from 26 percent last February.

Vice President Noli de Castro, the frontrunner in the past surveys, slipped with just 19 percent from 27 percent in the February survey.

Senator Francis Escudero got 20 percent, a decline of three percent from his February numbers, while Senator Loren Legarda also had a major plunge with only 15 percent, down from 25 percent in February.

The survey question was, “Under the present Constitution, the term of President Arroyo is up to 2010 only, and there will be an election for a new President in May, 2010. Who do you think are good leaders who should succeed President Arroyo as President?”

SWS said there was no list of names provided to prompt the respondents. They were only asked to give up to three names of their preference.

Former President Joseph Estrada’s standing also improved considerably, with 25 percent of Filipinos likely to vote for him in the 2010 presidential elections, putting him next behind Villar. He was seventh in the February survey.

Voter preference also increased for Senator Manuel Roxas II from 15 percent in February to 20 percent in June.

Meanwhile, 13 percent of the respondents refused to name their candidates.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews and has sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao, and ±4 percent for Balance Luzon.

Asked to comment about the survey results, Villar said he is leaving his fate to the Filipino people.

“I am really heartened by the support shown by the people in this survey. I thank the people for keeping the faith despite attempts to bring me down with unfounded allegations of wrongdoing,’’ he said.

‘’This is heart-warming. It certainly invigorates me to work harder. A lot of our kababayans need our help here and around the world,’’ the former Senate President added, referring to his personal advocacy of helping distressed local residents and overseas Filipino workers.

The Senate, formed as a committee of the whole, resumes very soon its hearing on allegations that the real estate business of the Villar family benefited from the re-alignment of a C-5 Road project in the cities of Paranaque and Las Pinas.

Villar maintained he has not violated the law and has not personally benefited from the road project.

The survey showed Villar overtaking de Castro and Legarda, the erstwhile frontrunners. Villar stressed that he and de Castro remain good friends, both belonging to the Wednesday club formed years ago by Sen. Joker Arroyo.

On reports that Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio is also seeking the presidency, Villar said he does not consider the priest-turned-governor a threat in his presidential bid but left to God and the people the turnout of the 2010 elections.

Asked by Senate reporters why her popularity rating dropped sharply by 10 points, Legarda threw back the question by asking, ‘’who commissioned the survey?’’

Legarda maintained that she has her own survey group led by an American firm which has a tie up with a Filipino group. She did not elaborate.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who withdrew his presidential bid more than a month ago, was in sixth place with 7% while Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay had 4%.

As president of 101-year-old Nacionalista party (NP), Villar said that ‘’while it is too early to say whether this trend will continue till the run-up to the May 2010 elections, I will do my best to live up to the trust and confidence given to my by our people.’’

Loren prefers Chiz as running mate

Sen. Loren Legarda Wednesday said she is considering Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero for her running mate if and when she decides to run for president in the May10, 2010 elections.

During the launching of her new website at the Padilla conference room of the Senate, Legarda said a Legarda-Escudero tandem would be a hard team to beat, considering that both of them are strong presidential contenders.

Legarda dispelled earlier reports that she had already declared she would run for presidenct while attending a conference in Maldives, saying she is still studying her options and possible political alliances in the next few months.

Given a chance, Legarda said she would prefer Escudero as her running mate since both of them are members of the Nationalist Peoples’ Coalition.

“Syempre ang dapat running mate mo kapartido mo di ba? So si Chiz (Escudero’s monicker), eh alangan namang susungkit ka pa sa iba. Hindi pa kami nag-uusap,” Legarda said. “Tsaka ang lakas naman ng tandem, we compliment each other’s personalities. He, for the youth, and me, for the women.”

But Legarda said being an opposition leader, she would still seek the endorsement of former President Joseph Estrada and seek an alliance with the opposition.

She also said she and Estrada has started unification talks on how to get all the possible candidates of the opposition together, and to weed out other problems so the opposition could launch its own presidential team.

She also said that during one of their informal meetings with Estrada, she asked about a possible alliance between the NPC and Estrada’s Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino party.

“We talked about alliances, his PMP is of course aligned with the Partido ng Demokrating Pilipino (PDP) and can be aligned, as a possibility. I asked him ‘is it a possibility to align with my party, NPC?’

Sabi niya, ‘tumakbo yata akong NPC noong 1992.’ So he’s open to align with the NPC,” Legarda said.