Who will be the next Pinoy President?

VICE-PRESIDENT (1) Noli L. de Castro has lost ground in a new Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on the best leader to succeed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo next year, with his latest ranking statistically putting him in a neck and neck race with senators (2) Manuel B. Villar and (3) Loren B. Legarda.

From 31% in December last year, Mr. de Castro is now favored by 27% of survey respondents, followed closely by Mr. Villar at 26% and Ms. Legarda at 25%. The latest results, made exclusive to BusinessWorld, also showed declines for both Mr. Villar (from 27%) and Ms. Legarda (from 28%) but in absolute terms the gap was enough for the former to regain second place.