MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Raffy Tulfo and former senator Grace Poe emerged as the top choices in the latest Tangere senatorial preference survey for the 2028 elections after three previous frontrunners were excluded from the poll.
Tulfo ranked first with 39.9 percent, followed by Poe with 36.7 percent, according to the noncommissioned survey conducted by market research and opinion polling firm Tangere from Sept. 10 to 14.
Former senator Manny Pacquiao placed in the third-to-sixth ranking cluster with 32.5 percent, up from 28 percent in the August survey, while Sen. Robin Padilla, Baste Duterte and Paolo Duterte also landed among the leading contenders.
Tangere said it excluded Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, former Manila Mayor Isko Moreno and former vice president Leni Robredo from the latest survey after they expressed that they would not run in 2028.
Sotto led the August survey with 42.1 percent, while Moreno and Robredo each recorded 30.8 percent.
The latest poll placed Padilla at 34 percent, Baste Duterte at 33.7 percent, Paolo Duterte at 32.8 percent and media executive Ben “Bitag” Tulfo at 30.8 percent.
Also included among the leading candidates were former senator Francis Escudero with 27.3 percent, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano with 26.6 percent, Education Secretary Sonny Angara with 23.6 percent, former senatorial candidate Chel Diokno with 22.9 percent and Sen. Loren Legarda with 22.5 percent.
The survey also showed gains among several candidates outside the leading group.
Musician and media personality Jimmy Bondoc recorded 18.5 percent, up from 13.7 percent in August, while Mike Defensor registered 14.5 percent and medical vlogger Richard Mata 13.1 percent.
House of Representatives' spokesman Zia Adiong posted 12.5 percent, placing him among the candidates with growing national visibility, according to Tangere.
The pollster attributed the changes in voter preferences partly to the exclusion of Sotto, Moreno and Robredo, saying their removal affected support in the National Capital Region, Southern Luzon and the Bicol Region.
Tangere said Ben Tulfo and Angara expanded their reach across Metro Manila and Luzon, while Nancy Binay and Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte gained support in the NCR.
Rex Gatchalian is at 18.7 percent, Nancy Binay 19 percent and Belmonte 15.2 percent.
The survey covered 2,400 respondents nationwide and had a reported margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points at a 95-percent confidence level.
It used a mobile-based respondent application and stratified random sampling with quota-based sampling. Respondents were distributed across the country, with 12 percent from the NCR, 23 percent from Northern Luzon, 22 percent from Southern Luzon, 20 percent from the Visayas and 23 percent from Mindanao.
The results reflect voter preferences at the time of the survey and do not constitute election results or a prediction of the 2028 senatorial outcome.
