Lorenzana doubts timing of new survey on West PH Sea

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday expressed doubts on the timing of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that showed majority of Filipinos reject the administration’s inaction over China’s militarization in the West Philippine Sea.

“I doubt the results of the survey. You can manipulate the survey to suit your conclusion. So, ‘yung timing na nilabas nila pagdating ni Xi makes it more questionable to me,” he told reporters. 

The results of the survey were released on the eve of Xi’s state visit to the Philippines on Tuesday. 

The survey found that 84 percent of Filipinos think it was not right for the Philippines to allow China to build and fortify its military outposts in the disputed territories. 

This was up by three points from 81 percent in the SWS second quarter survey. 

Eight-seven percent of Filipinos saw it important that the Philippines regain control of the West Philippine Sea that are occupied by China, the same survey revealed.

The latest survey was conducted from September 15-23, using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults nationwide.

It had sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±4% for Balance Luzon, and ±6% for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao. /kga