The elections are still 7 month away but the survey numbers have essentially narrowed the field of ‘serious’ candidates to Sen. Noynoy Aquino, Sen MannyVillar, ex president Estrada, Sen. Chiz Escudero, Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro, and evangelist Eddie Villanueva.

And if we are to believe the latest dipstick of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) putative administration bet Teodoro will get a quite severe drubbing while Aquino, despite his impressive lead, will be in for a battle royale against Villar, Estrada, and Estrada, assuming the come-backing former president is disqualified from running.

Mr. Teodoro’s dismal rating demolishes the myth peddled by administration partisans that when ‘anointed’ the administration coalition standard bearer would see his voter preference rating hitting the double digit mark.

The truth is if the coffee shop tongue-waggers are given credence, Teodoro may even be lose out to a new administration wannabee when the formal Lakas-KAMPI-CMD nominating convention is held very soon.

The person could very well be public works secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.
Ahead of the release of the SWS’s latest survey(Sept. 118-21,2009), news reports have all but affirmed even the presidential and vice presidential pairings.

These are the Aquino- (Mar)Roxas, Villar-(Noli) De Castro, Estrada-(Jojo) Binay, and Escudero-(Loren) Legarda tickets.
These past nearly three weeks marked by the disastrous floods and landslides have forced the aspirants to either prudently delay their official declarations (like in the case of Natonslist People’s Coalition bet Escudeo) or push their political agenda unashamedly (like Villar’s ‘branded’ relief packs).

Of course, the top-of-mind political reports cannot be ‘encashed’ yet, but they do tend to influence the thinking of the undecideds.

But hey, paraphrasing the poem, the wannabees have miles to go before they can sleep, with room for further realignments, and even dropouts, before the next President is installed in Malacanang.