Erap Leads SWS Latest Presidential Survey

Former President Joseph 'Erap' Estrada is back in the game.

After his ouster from office in 2001 due to allegations of plunder and corruption (see history here), the Filipino people must have forgotten the sins at all, and may have forgiven Erap, as he is now on top of the presidential surveys conducted by the Social Weather Station last June 2009.

Erap Estrada, who gathered about 21% of the approval ratings, is closely followed by Senator Manny Villar (19%), Senator Chiz Escudero (18%), and Vice President Noli De Castro (15%).

However, the Erap Camp must still have to wait for the final decision on whether he is still eligible to run on 2010.

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Meanwhile, as Former President Estrada continues to increase his popularity, President Gloria Arroyo finds herself at the center of yet another series of controversies on her alleged dinner overspending in New York alongside her state visit with President Barack Obama in Washington.

Miniminimaynimu

In less than two months, we are entering into 2009 and as I have tackled in a previous blog, the Presidential race fiasco is becoming a hit on the news lately.

The latest SWS Survey , conducted on September 2008, puts VP Noli De Castro ahead of the pack at 29% while Senators Manny Villar (28%), and Loren Legarda (26%) closely followed.

Malacañang palace issued a statement recently enumerating their choices for the 2010 elections-which includes- De Castro, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, Senator Richard Gordon, Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte.

Earlier, Villar and Fernando signified their intention to run for the Top post. Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay also recently informed the media that he is also eyeing for the post. (Now, wouldn't that be a match?- Binay vs. BF in another arena).

With a lot to choose from, and a lot more days to go before the 2010, we will yet to see a lot more changes on who will finally submit their Certificates of Candidacy for the Presidential race (needless to say, there will also be a lot more ober-da-bakods in play).

However, there is this post from Cocoy in Filipino Voices.com which actually struck my attention:

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Paano Kung Wala?
Written on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 at 7:29 pm by cocoy

Filipino Voices is asking, Who are YOU Supporting for 2010?

Oh yeah, you should go there and cast.

I’ll wait. Done?

Great!

As I was saying, what if… we hold an election and nobody came? Or everyone did but everyone abstained for lack of choices? I mean, seriously.

It isn’t like we have a huge pool to make a choice from. Do we choose the lesser evil of the bunch– like we have the last 20 years or so? Do we make a stand here and now and say, you want us to vote— give us better choices. We don’t want plain vanilla. we don’t want chocolate! we want coffee mint walnut ice cream!

Are we prepared to draw a line in the sand and say— we want better?

What do you think?
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I must admit I am an advocate of exercising the right to suffrage-encouraging a lot of the people, especially the young, to register and vote, however, the question is still bugging my mind: Am I prepared to draw the line and say I want a better choice?

Do I vote and choose the "lesser evil" among those vying for the post?
Or do I stand and say: "I don't want any of those. I want better."?

Now, I'm thinking.