SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union -- Congressional candidate Dante Sotelo Garcia has overtaken incumbent La Union second district congresswoman Sandra Eriguel in an independent voter’s preference survey taken a week before Monday’s polls.

Independent pollster Societas Studis found out that Garcia, a veteran public servant since his younger years as a Sangguniang Kabataan leader, had garnered overwhelming support from largely younger voters including millenials and even a cross-section of sectors in the second district of La Union.

Based on the result of the survey, Garcia got a 73.8 percent voter preference, almost three times bigger than that of Eriguel who got 26.2 percent.

In the 2019 elections, Garcia placed second in the three-cornered fight against political heavyweights armed with hefty war chests like logistics and lingering name-recall.

Societas Studis said Garcia’s giant leap to first place was attributable to ‘mass appeal’ and ‘people-centered’ priorities.

Among Garcia’s legislative programs is the improvement and harnessing of government medical facilities in La Union that provide services to the poorest of the poor.

“Access to medical services of the greater majority needs much improvement,” Garcia emphasized.

Already, Garcia has started a medical access card that has enrolled over a hundred thousand beneficiaries that he dreams can render easy and fast access to free medical services in the province.

Such a program, Societas Studis learned, had tremendously hiked Garcia’s trust rating among the 3,000 randomly selected respondents in its April 29-May 5 study.