Sara Duterte, Bong Go dominate pre-election polls for 2028—survey
Vice President Sara Duterte and Senator Bong Go emerged as the top officials preferred by the public to become the next president and vice president in 2028, respectively, according to a public opinion research firm.
In a survey on pre-election preferences released by WR Numero Research, Duterte garnered 31.4% of respondents' support for the 2028 presidency. However, this is seven points lower than her previous percentage score in the firm's April 2025 survey.
On her heels are former Vice President Leni Robredo at 13.3% and Senator Raffy Tulfo at 10.3%.
Other preferred candidates for president include Go, Imee Marcos, Bam Aquino, Grace Poe, Robin Padilla, Risa Hontiveros, Chiz Escudero, Manny Pacquiao, Martin Romualdez, and Win Gatchalian.
There were 18% of respondents who answered that they were not sure who to pick, while 4.3% said their preferred candidate was not included in the selection.
By area, Duterte was the top choice among respondents in Metro Manila at 19%, Visayas at 31%, and Mindanao at 66%. While 20% of participants answered "unsure" for the rest of Luzon, Duterte was still above the other candidates at 18%.
As for vice president, Go was the top choice of 16.2% of the respondents, a 6.9-point drop from his previous score.
Tulfo and Aquino followed suit at 14.9% and 8.4%, respectively. Padilla, Poe, Escudero, Marcos, Hontiveros, Pacquiao, Romualdez, and Gatchalian fill up the rest of the spots.
A significant portion of respondents, 23.6%, were undecided, and 4.2% indicated that their preferred candidate was not among the choices.
By area, Go was only the top choice for Mindanao at 34%.
While most respondents in other areas answered "unsure," Aquino was the second choice in Metro Manila at 16%, Tulfo in the rest of Luzon at 20%, and Go in Visayas at 20%.
WR Numero's assessment also examined preferences based on factional partisanship. For president, Duterte was the top choice among the Pro-Marcos (19%), Opposition (31%), and Independent (66%) groups. However, the Pro-Duterte group's top choice was "unsure" at 20%.
For vice president, the top choices were more varied: Tulfo led the Pro-Marcos group at 22%, Go topped the Pro-Duterte group at 33%, and Aquino was the favorite among the Opposition at 26%. The Independent group's top choice was "unsure" at 40%.
The firm gathered 1,418 participants for the survey, which was conducted from July 29 to Aug. 6.
In June, Duterte said she has not thought about running for presidency in 2028.
"I have not planned anything for the presidential race of 2028. Some supporters have given me a deadline of the fourth quarter of the year 2026. So that is when I will decide if I will run for president on 2028," she said.
Duterte recently scored a major legal victory after the Supreme Court struck down an impeachment complaint against her, ruling it was unconstitutional.
The House of Representatives has since filed a motion for reconsideration. They stated that due process “is already built into Article XI Section 3 [of the Constitution] itself in the form of a Senate trial.” The motion also argued that the one-year bar rule, which prohibits the initiation of impeachment proceedings against the same official more than once within one year, is not applicable in the case.
Duterte has yet to respond to the motion. The SC had given her and the other petitioners 10 days to submit their comments.
The next presidential elections will be held on May 8, 2028.