MANILA – Presidential aspirants Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor-Santiago topped the survey of a faith-based radio in the Philippines.
Based on the Veritas Truth Survey on Servant Leadership qualities of the 2016 presidential candidates for the forthcoming national polls during the first quarter of 2016, Poe has been viewed by most Filipinos to have the qualities of a servant leader after being at the top spot in 9 out of 10 qualities of a servant leader and with an over-all percentage of 59 percent.
She was followed by Santiago of the People’s Reform Party who has been consistently ranked 2nd in half of the given traits and had an over-all percentage of 51 percent.
The nationwide survey on voters’ perception of the servant qualities of the candidates for the highest post of the land held by the Church-run radio station from February to March among 1,200 respondents.
The people were asked to rank the five presidential candidates based on the ten qualities of a servant leader (listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of the people, and building community).
Fr. Anton Pascual, Radio Veritas President said the survey was conducted to know if candidates for the coming election possess qualities of a servant leader based on the points of view of the voting public and to assess how such qualities would affect voters’ decisions.
Tied on third spot were the standard bearer of PDP-Laban Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Liberal Party (LP) bet, former Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel Roxas II with 44 percent.
Vice President Jejomar Binay of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) ranked last in half of the given traits and has obtained an over-all percentage of 41 percent of the respondents.
On the first quality of a servant leader, which is listening, 3 out of 4 (76.5%) the top choice was Poe, followed by Roxas with 54.3 percent. Santiago came in third obtaining 53.9 percent followed by Binay with 50.5 percent and Duterte at 44. 65%.
Most of the respondents (70.8%) said that Poe was the most empathetic among those seeking the highest position in the country.
The vice president placed second with 52.5 percent followed by the Davao City mayor (46.5 percent). The administration standard-bearer received 45 percent while the PRP presidential bet got 40.9%.
On the third quality of a servant leader, healing, half of the respondents (51.1%) favored Poe followed by Santiago with 36% of the respondents.
Roxas came in third place with 30.3 percent, while Duterte and Binay obtained 29.2 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively.
Three out of four respondents (75.1%) said that Santiago has the servant leadership quality of awareness followed by the Vice President with 65 percent.
With 61.7 percent, the former DILG chief came in third place, while the Davao chief executive obtained 56.1 percent and Poe rank last at 48.7 percent.
Majority of the respondents (56.4 %) said that Poe has the fifth quality of a servant leader, which is persuasion. She was followed by Santiago with 55.3 percent. Duterte received 42.6 percent, Roxas with 39.1 percent and 33.7 % for Binay.
Poe garnered 58.5 percent also took the top spot for servant quality of conceptualization was Santiago came in close second with 58 percent.
Duterte obtained 51.4 percent, followed by Binay with 49.2 percent and Roxas got less than half of the respondents (48.3%).
The lady senators were also favored candidate for president with foresight by the majority Poe with 56.9% and Santiago with 53.4 percent.
Duterte got 51%; Roxas, 46.3% and Binay, 44.6%.
For the eighth quality of a servant leader, stewardship, Poe was number one with 65.3% followed by Santiago with 51.3 percent; Duterte with 40.3 percent; Roxas with 38.4 percent and Binay with 31 percent.
Poe was again the top choice with commitment to the growth of the people after posting 53.5% followed closely by Santiago with 50.6 percent.
Duterte got 44.1 percent; Roxas with 39.1 percent and Binay with 25.3 percent.
For the last quality of a servant leader, building community, majority of the respondents (52.8%) chose Poe. Roxas came second with 39.4 percent followed by Binay (39.3%), Santiago (37.4%) and Duterte (36.8%).
When all scores given to each candidate per servant leadership trait were averaged, the survey showed that the respondents viewed the candidates to have these qualities: awareness (61%); listening (56%); conceptualization (53%); empathy (51%) and foresight (50%).
Getting less than 50 percent of the average percentage, respondents thought that candidates have lack of persuasion (45%); stewardship (45%); commitment to growth (43%); building community (41%) and healing (34%).
The survey was conducted by the research department of Radio Veritas headed by Dr. Clifford Sorita.
The respondents are from urban and rural areas nationwide. They were chosen on the basis of stratified random sampling, with +/- 3% margin of error.