Gordon says focus on services, not surveys

Senatorial candidate Richard “Dick” Gordon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—In choosing whom to vote for, it’s better to look at service, not surveys.

With a few weeks to go before the elections, senatorial candidate Richard Gordon of the United Nationalist Alliance said voters should consider what those seeking their approval have actually done for the problems they had been facing.

Gordon said that for instance, the power supply problem in Mindanao has been going on for several years, and voters should think about what some of the candidates in power have actually done to address this.

Otherwise, they might just experience the same problem all over again.

“The Aquino administration is on its third year. You have no electricity every year, and then you will just accept surveys?” he said during a Zamboanga City briefing.

The candidates of the President’s Team PNoy have been dominating recent surveys.

Gordon urged voters not to be swayed by research results that show the supposed probable winner in the polls.

“Service is important, not surveys,” he said.

He continued to slam surveys as propaganda, saying there are many unknown factors involving these, such as who funded them and what specific areas these had covered.

“It’s a business. People pay for these surveys. It’s part and parcel of propaganda,” he said.

He earlier said surveys could be used to condition the minds of the people to favor candidates viewed as likely or as sure winners, because they might think their votes would just be wasted if they choose the low ranking bets.

Meanwhile, Sen. Gregorio Honasan said solutions are available to the government so that it could alleviate the long-festering power supply problem in Mindanao.

Honasan noted that there are a lot of idle power barges that could be activated to fill the 250 megawatt shortage. These barges could supply up to 370 megawatts, he added.

“That’s immediate. We can do that tomorrow or next week,” he said.

The government could also use Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, he said.

Section 71 states that upon the President’s determination of an imminent shortage of electricity supply in the country, congress, through a joint resolution, may authorize the establishment of additional generation capacity.

“All the Secretary of Energy has to do is tell the President, ‘there’s a problem in Mindanao, and people are suffering. Can you please communicate to the Senate and congress to come up with a joint resolution that there is a power crisis in Mindanao.’ That will set things in motion,” he said.

The lack of a steady supply of electricity in Mindanao, leading to frequent, rotating blackouts, has hobbled businesses in the area and has left many people suffering. Critics noted that this problem has stunted growth in the island because many businesses could not expand and find it hard to keep up the cost of maintaining generators.