BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio g. Domogan and retired Deputy Director-General Benjamin B. Magalong are leading the way in the city’s congressional and mayoralty races, respectively, based on a recent online survey conducted by the prestigious Baguio Heritage Foundation, Inc. from February 14-24, 2018.
The citywide survey utilized the online survey platform Survey Monkey and distributed through various interfaces, pages and prolifes on social media and during the duration of the survey, all collector links disabled the ‘multiple response’ function to enhance credibility of results gathered by the survey.
The survey had a sample 412 representative adults, 18 years old and above, and it holds a plus or minus 5 percent margin of error and a 95 percent confidence level.
Baguio City has a total 164,679 voters for the May 13, 2019 mid-term elections based on the latest list of qualified voters released by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last month and it registered an increase of 16,885 voters or a 10.25 percent compared to the 2016 national elections.
The foundation’s citywide online survey consisted of 15 indispensably relevant questions to attain its core objectives in collecting quantifiable data on the public’s satisfaction with the local government services.
In the race for the city’s lone district, Domogan garnered 53.40 percent of the votes cast while incumbent Rep. Mark Go was able to master 32.28 percent of the votes which will not be enough to ensure him a second term in Congress. Peter Rey Bautista might be frustrated in his second attempt at the House of Representatives after he only got 7.52 percent of the votes while former Rep. Nicasio M. Aliping, Jr. and Rafael Wasan garnered 5.83 percent and 0.97 percent of the votes cast, respectively if the elections were conducted today.
Based on the online survey conducted by the foundation, a substantial number of votes will instate a non-politician into the city’s executive post if the May 2019 national and local elections will be held today. Magalong led the mayoralty race after garnering 35.19 percent of the votes followed by City Councilor Edgar M. Avila came in second with 25.19 percent Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. – 11.41 percent, Vice mayor Edison R. Bilog – 10.44 percent, lawyer Jose M. Molintas – 9.71 percet, businessman Antonio Tabora – 3.88 percent, Benny Alhambra and Labio Calingayan – 0.97 percent each and Jeffrey Pinic – 0.24 percent.
On the other hand, incumbent City Councilor Elmer Datuin led the race for the city’s vice mayoralty post after garnering 35.44 percent of the respondents followed by Councilor Peter Fianza – 26.70 percent, Councilor Faustino Olowan – 15.0 percent, Councilor Michael L. Lawana – 13.1 percent, lawyer Rene Cortes – 8 percent and Felizardo Garcia – 1.7 percent.
In the said survey, there were 216 male respondents representing 52.43 percent of the sample size while female respondents totalled 196 or 47.57 percent.
The Baguio Heritage Foundation, Inc. disclosed that 393 respondents or 95.39 percent of the sample size are registered voters in the city while the remaining 4.61 percent or 19 respondents are not.
The foundation asserted that Baguio City is undeniably the melting pot of the north and the diversed ethnicity of its people can be broken down with the Ilocanos forming the biggest ethno linguistic group in the city followed by the Kankanaeys. The third largest ethno-linguistic group among the respondents claim to having ‘mixed’ ethnic origins brought about by inter-marriages not only among the different tribes in the country but with other races as well.
Further, Baguio prides itself of having a youthful citizenry wherein it is the young and dynamic populace that nurtures a bright hope for the city. Respondents within the age range 31-35 years old topped the rank with 73 persons followed by those in the age range 26-30 years old with a total of 71 and landing in third place are those whose age range are between 36-40 followed by those at the age range of 41-45 years old.
The foundation concluded that Baguio citizens aged 21-45 years old serve as the city’s strength and backbone in the development and betterment of the city.
Moreover, Baguio city is recognized and accepted as a spiritual mecca in the country and has for years cradled various religious beliefs. Data gathered from the survey showed that 262 regular voters are Catholics representing 63.59 percent while Protestant ranked second with 59 respondents; 53 respondents selected others representing 12.86 percent of the total sample size.
The foundation stated that 240 or 58.25 percent of the respondents to the survey are college graduates; currently, 63 respondents or 15.29 percent have either masters or doctorate degrees followed by post-graduates with 55 respondents.
A great majority of the respondents are gainfully employed wherein there are 53 or 12.86 percent under business management and administration; followed by health and science with 43 or 10.44 percent; education and training with 40 or 9.71 percent. At a glance, 56 respondents selected the answer choice others representing 13.59 percent.
Among the respondents, 40.05 percent or 165 are homeowners, while 38.59 or 159 respondents are relatives of homeowners. 82 or 19.9 percent of the respondents rent the house they live in while only 1.46 percent of the respondents claim to be caretakers of the property they currently dwell in.
By HENT
