Senator Antonio Trillanes IV criticized as ‘not valid’ the recent SWS presidential survey where Sen. Grace Poe (center) led, followed by LP candidate Mar Roxas (left) and Vice President Jejomar Binay. INQUIRER FILE
At least two senators questioned on Monday the methodology used by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in its latest survey when it asked respondents to give three names of good leaders who should succeed President Benigno Aquino III.
In the SWS survey conducted from September 2 to 5, respondents were asked: “According to the Constitution, the term of President Noynoy Aquino is up to 2016 only, and there will be an election for a new President in May 2016. Who do you think are the good leaders who should succeed Pres. Aquino as President? You may give up to three names.”
But Senator Francis Escudero said he could not understand why respondents would be asked to pick three names to a one-on-one fight post.
“Hanggang ngayon hindi ko pa rin maintidihan ang rason kung bakit choose 3 yun pero sila naman yung nagpapa survey hindi naman kami. Ang laban kasi one on one, bakit choose 3? Pero lamang pa rin naman si Grace dun,” Escudero said in a phone patch interview, referring to Senator Grace Poe.
(Until now, I don’t understand the reason why choose 3 but anyway they are the ones conducting the survey. The fight is one on one, why choose 3? But Poe is still leading in that survey)
Poe and Escudero formally declared last week their team up for the 2016 elections.
“Reliable yun sa tanong na choose 3 pero hindi sa tanong na choose 1,” he further said.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV also questioned the survey, saying it only gave false hopes to candidates lagging behind the polls.
“Paasa ito sa mga hindi mataas ang score kung choose one lang so dyan lumalabas, silang tatlo parang ang tataas nila, parang may pag asa silang lahat so di nabobola din yung mga kandidato,” Trillanes, who is backing Poe’s presidential bid, said in a separate phone interview.
(It gives false hopes for those who are not ranking high if [the question is for choose 1 only] so it appears there that all three have chances so they are fooling these candidates)
The three he was referring to were top three choices for president in the SWS survey. They were Poe, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Vice President Jejomar Binay.
“Wala s’yang use at all except for propaganda purposes. You can spin it kagaya nila Secretary Mar Roxas. They can make it appear na nandooon na sila, neck and neck na sila or na-overtaken na nila si Vice President Binay …” he said.
(It has no use at all except for propaganda purposes. You can spin it like Secretary Mar Roxas. They can make it appear that they are neck and neck, that he had overtaken Vice President Binay)
But in actual elections, Trillanes pointed out that there’s no such thing as third choice for president.
“There’s only once choice,” he said.
“Yung methodolgy nila is not valid, if it’s going to be used as a basis for voters preference, yung mga researchers alam yan,” Trillanes added.