As Senator Grace Poe agonized over her possible disqualification by Comelec and as Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Mar Roxas were locked in a ‘word war,’ Vice President Jejomar Binay stayed away from the fray, hobnobbed with the hoi polloi in a nationwide sortie without fanfare and went on to grab the lead in the pre-poll surveys for presidential preference.

Bouncing from a low finish in previous surveys conducted as he was being barrage with accusations of corruption, Binay, in the latest surveys, topped Pulse Asia and shared the lead with Poe in the SWS survey.

Duterte’s and Roxas’ ratings were probably affected by the war of words that also pushed up Binay’s figures.

Poe was silent on the latest results of the surveys that she previously topped. The results were released as the Comelec ruled on her disqualification case and kicked her out of the presidential derby in 2016.

Roxas downplayed the results saying his fate would be decided on election day.

The camp of Duterte, who is also facing a disqualification case,  credited Binay’s rise to Duterte’s statement that he would support Binay if he is disqualified by Comelec.