Robredo ranks as candidate of choice for market investors while Marcos nears bottom in Bloomberg poll
Philippine investors favor Vice President Leni Robredo to be the country's next president among other candidates, according to a recent Bloomberg poll. Meanwhile, Bongbong Marcos, who usually tops presidential surveys, ranks near the bottom of the list.
Robredo garnered the highest score of 106, with Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson coming in second with a score of 91 and Manila Mayor Isko Moreno with 81. At the bottom of the ranking are Marcos and Sen. Manny Pacquiao with scores of 46 and 44, respectively.
For the survey, 28 investors and analysts were asked to score the presidentiables from 5 to 1, with 5 being the most positive. It also determined who the Philippine market thinks is the best person to lead the country in the midst of its pandemic recovery.
“What we need is a captain who will bring us out of the storm," BDO Unibank Inc. chief market strategist Jonathan Ravelas told Bloomberg.
“The next leader must be able to address the economic and social crises we are confronting, to put us back on the path to faster growth. How our markets will perform will depend greatly on that.”
Poll results also showed that respondents see cooling inflation and managing the pandemic as top priorities for the next administration.
Marcos, who got 60% of the votes from Pulse Asia's February 18 to 23 survey, was said to be "less market-friendly than Robredo." Economists considered experience at the national level and recovery strategy for their choice.
"If [Marcos] is elected, it would only reinforce our view that the economy will continue to underperform over the coming years," Asian economist Alex Holmes said, citing his lack of achievements as senator and tax fraud charges as reference.
