MANILA, Philippines – Lawyers of Chief Justice Renato Corona have accused Social Weather Station (SWS) of conditioning the mind of the public not to accept an acquittal of the Chief Justice in his impeachment trial.
In a statement, Corona’s defense counsels said the First Quarter 2012 Social Weather Report contained questions which were “manipulated” and “contrived” to favor the prosecution and “skewed” against the Chief Justice.”
Lawyer Karen Jimeno particularly pointed to the people power question “whether the people would support people power in the event of a Senate acquittal tries to condition the minds of the people not to accept anything other than conviction.”
Quoting Stephen Borgatti, a research professor at the University of Kentucky and Boston College, the defense said a researcher, in constructing questionnaires, must be guided to avoid leading questions, false premises, questions asking future intentions and even questions beyond a respondent’s capabilities.
“Please note that in their own past survey between February 26 and March 9 on awareness of the impeachment trial, there has been a series of contradictions in the data generated. For example, only a miniscule 8 percent or 34 of the 1,200 respondents know a great deal about the impeachment,” defense lawyer Tranquil Salvador.
The recent SWS survey conducted from March 10-13 showed that 63 percent of Filipinos or six out of 10 believe that the Chief Justice has hidden wealth based on the reported assets not reflected in his statement of assets, liabilities and networth.