The 2025 Local and National Elections are barely a few days away. With this, the Amaranth held a Mock Election Survey among the Viscan community for the National Elections, aiming to gauge the general trend among students throughout the entire VSU system – drawing out who the Viscan Choice is, and what influenced their decisions.

How we conducted the survey

The survey aimed to cover the preferences of the entire system of Visayas State University, including its component campuses at Villaba, Isabel, Tolosa, and Alangalang. Due to the difficulties of organizing such a task in a face to face setting, especially in consideration of the distances between each campus, the survey was conducted in an online setting.

To verify that a respondent is in fact a student of VSU, they were asked to provide their student number, and encouraged to use their VSU-provided email. Other information such as their degree programs, year-level standing, and age-range were also collected for demographic purposes.

At the end of the survey, they were presented with a series of statements to gauge the factors influencing their decision in a Likert scale. The statements covered the candidate's educational background, professional experience, achievements, past performances, and advocacies or platforms. The students were also asked if their decisions were influenced by their social network, candidate's or party-list's popularity, and incentivization. 

Senatorial slate dominated by progressive candidates

For the senatorial slate, senatoriables Bam Aquino and Kiko Pangilinan lead the polls by a wide margin, with Aquino earning 416 votes in total, and Kiko slightly behind with 408 votes.  They are the only two candidates who broke the 400-vote barrier. 

Running in third is Luke Espiritu of Partido Lakas ng Masa, gaining 388 votes, tailed closely by independent candidate Heidi Mendoza, who got 383 votes. Luke Espiritu’s fellow PLM candidate, Ka Leody de Guzman, garnered 351 votes, and is the last candidate to break the 300-vote barrier. The next four positions are dominated by candidates from the Makabayan slate, with Danilo Ramos garnering 217 votes, followed by fellow candidates Arlene Brosas (185 votes), Teddy Casiño (179 votes), and Ronnel Arambulo (174 votes).

Sonny Matula of the Workers and Peasant’s Party also got into the ‘Magic 12’, with 143 votes, closely tailed by Makabayan candidate France Castro at 142 votes. Independent Candidate Norman Marquez and Makabayan Candidate Liza Maza clinched 91 votes and 81 votes respectively, being the last senatorial candidates considered to have a fair shot at the line-up. 

Akbayan leads Partylist poll by a huge margin

As for partylist representation, the poll saw Akbayan partylist lead the Top 5, garnering a whopping 183 votes, and being the only partylist to reach past 100 votes. They are followed by Kabataan Partylist (65 votes), and Makabayang Liberal (45 votes). Securing the fourth and fifth spot are Tingog Partylist with 39 votes, and Gabriela with 25 votes.

The voting factors

The majority of respondents to the poll agreed that they chose their candidates and partylists due to the presence of clear and strong advocacies, as well as in consideration of their candidate’s educational background, professional experiences, achievements, and past performance. 

Respondents mostly stayed neutral at being influenced by friends or peers, and mostly disagreed with voting due to a candidate's popularity, personal relationship, their strong power base, and gaining an incentive to vote for them.

Demographic analysis

Of over 14,000 registered students across the Main Campus and VITA Campuses of Visayas State University, the survey only received a total of 461 validated votes, although it is good to know that this is still well-within the confines of a valid sample within a 95% confidence level. 

Of these, 449 of the respondents are registered voters for the upcoming National Elections, with 12 not being registered. 206 respondents are within the age bracket of 18-20, and 206 respondents are classified at the 21-23 bracket. A total of 49 respondents are aged 24 and above. 

Among the respondents, 23.3%  (107) were Freshmen, 22.8% (105) were Sophomores, 27.21% (125) were Juniors, and 26.70% (123) were Seniors.

A vast majority of respondents came from the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science (FAFS), with around 93 students participating in the survey. They are followed by the Faculty of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (FNMS) at 79 respondents, and tailed closely by the Faculty of Engineering (FE) at 72 respondents. 

Representation drops sharply after this, with the Faculty of Teacher Education (FTE) clocking in 59 respondents, Faculty of Management and Economics (FME) at 46 respondents, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Science (FFES) at a mere 26 respondents, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (FVM) at 25 respondents, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (FHSS) at 22 respondents, Faculty of Nursing (FON) at 13, Faculty of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (FFAS) at 11, the Faculty of Computing (FOC) at 10, and Faculty of Criminal Justice Education (FCJE) with only 2 respondents answering the survey.

Findings and recommendations

While the survey does provide a stronger basis to prove that Viscans largely prefer a liberal-leaning to progressive slate in the annals of power, it is concerning to see only a small voter turnout for this mock election. It reverberates the issue of political apathy of the larger population of VSU. 

With only 461 total respondents answering the survey – not even 3% of the university’s entire population –  casted their vote, a very poor performance compared to universities such as the University of the Philippines - Tacloban College (UPTC) and Leyte Normal University (LNU), which both have far smaller student populations but still managed to break the 1,000 voter threshold in their respective mock elections. This concern is further elevated when considering the entire survey was held online for an entire week.

Though it goes to show that the majority of Viscans are likely to prefer candidates and partylists with progressive advocacies, it also suggests participation in electoral processes is still scarce among the young generation which forms about 63% of this year’s voting population. 

As we near the National and Local Elections this May 12th, it may be high time for the university, an institution that was always meant to encourage the flourishing of knowledge and critical thinking, to educate its over 14,000 students the importance of the electoral process, and how influential their voices could be.