Rama leads; Tom O says fabricated

A survey purportedly commissioned by the ruling Liberal Party which sees Mayor Michael Rama on top was released yesterday.

Copies of the survey called “Preference Tracking Poll Cebu Mayoralty Race” and which had a logo of the Liberal Party (LP) on the four-page copy were furnished to city hall reporters yesterday.

The poll conducted among 6,476 respondents showed that Osmeña trailing Rama by 481 points or votes.

But Osmeña, the standard beared of Bando Osmeña Pundok Kagawasan – LP who leads Rama by 6.7 percentage points in the University of San Carlos survey released last Monday laughed at the so called LP survey, calling it “fabricated.”

“There is no LP survey in Cebu City. LP is only doing surveys for its senatorial candidates and not its local candidates,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Representative Osmeña is the younger brother of Sen. Sergio “Serge” Osmeña who is a campaign consultant of the LP.

Osmeña added that if LP would decide to fund a survey in Cebu City, this will surely not be limited among the mayoral candidates and will also include other local positions.

Rama for his part said that surveys should not be taken seriously because these are mere guide and is subject to validation.

But he said that even in the absence of survey results, there remains a “mismatch” between him and Osmeña.

“There is no such thing as a tight race because from the beginning kay high na ang akong rating [my rating have been high],” said Rama who also downplayed results of the USC survey.

Rama said he only saw a copy of the LP survey yesterday.

“I have my own surveys to guide me and for validation,” Rama said when asked if he was convinced of the credibility of the many surveys already conducted in Cebu City.

The distribution of the LP survey, according to Osmeña was nothing but a “damage control” because Rama knows that he is already losing in the election.

CDN was not able to independently verify the source of the survey.