The camp of Makati City mayoral candidate and Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado has denied commissioning the survey, allegedly conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) that showed Mercado has a slight lead over contender, Councilor Jejomar Erwin “Jun-jun” Binay.

Lawyer Chito Salud, spokesperson of Mercado, said they are not responsible for the proliferation of the alleged survey through text message, since they did not commission any.

“I have not seen that survey. And we do not know who commissioned it. But the numbers validate our own figures. This is still a close race,” said Salud.

Mercado, in an earlier interview, stressed that he does not believe in the integrity of surveys, noting that “in my experience, it’s a question of who commissioned the survey. If you commissioned it, the results will favor you.”

In the alleged survey, it showed that Mercado is leading the mayoral race, besting his other contenders - young Binay, former senator Agapito “Butz” Aquino, and Erwin Genuino.

"SWS Survey as of March 7 to 10, 2010 with 2,520 Makati resident respondents. District 1 Mercado 41%, Binay 30%, Genuino 10%, Aquino 1% district 2 37%, 33%, 12%, 2% respectively," said in the text received by Makati City residents.

The camp of Binay earlier warned against the proliferation of survey results.

“If there is indeed such a survey done by the Social Weather Stations as claimed by the camp of Mercado, then why are they circulating it through text messages instead of presenting it to media?” Lito Anzures, Binay’s spokesperson said.

Anzures said SWS president Mahar Mangahas had said they would only confirm or deny the veracity of survey results attributed to his survey group only if these results are published in media.

“If this is the case, then that explains why the alleged SWS survey result is only being circulated through text. This is another propaganda attempt meant to show a tight race when in fact, Jun-Jun

Binay has a commanding lead over all the other candidates, especially Mercado,” he said.

On the contrary, Anzures said a Pulse Asia survey conducted Feb. 13-14 showed Binay with a commanding 50% share of the votes in Makati while Mercado trails behind Binay with 20%, while Lakas-Kampi bet Erwin Genuino has 17%.

“We are putting this on record so the media can verify the results with Pulse Asia. We hope that Mercado will do the same and publish the so-called SWS survey or any survey by a credible pollster,” he said.

Anzures claimed that based on the Pulse Asia survey, it is apparent that Mercado “has already peaked.”