Anakpawis lawmakers score administration proposal to regulate surveys

MANILA -- Anakpawis Representatives Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano
today said that there was a comprehensive administration public
campaign to cast doubt on pre-election surveys. They said that that
the campaign was meant to convince the voting populace that surveys we
are just paid political propaganda and are essentially useless.

The Anakpawis lawmakers said that the campaign codenamed Oplan Havana
is primarily a campaign launched via via mass media to expose the
supposed inconsistencies of recent survey results carried out by SWS
and Pulse Asia. Anakpawis was given a copy of the guidelines of Oplan
Havana by an ally.

"Oplan Havana is a plot hatched by certain candidates in Team Unity
who are trailing badly in the surveys. It aims to discredit the
electoral surveys because obviously, these surveys indicate that the
Team Unity candidates are at the losing end against the candidates of
the Genuine Opposition. The administration cannot deny that the
electoral surveys have the effect of further setting a trend in the
preferences of the voting public," they said. "The administration is
just sour graping because they are not benefitting any from these
independent surveys."

Beltran said that accrording to sources, Oplan Havana aims to create
a scenario wherein Filipinos will mistrust surveys and make them
believe that thse surveys are lacking in credibility and are just
empty political propaganda. The administration and Team Unity
candidates intent to infuse millions of pesos in a separate media
bliztkreig to discredit the surveys.

"Already staunch Malacañang defender Davao Rep. Prospero Nograles is
calling for the regulation of electoral surveys. This is without doubt
because of the continued failure of the Arroyo administration's Team
Unity candidates to rate high in the surveys. If the surveys were
showing opposite results and the Team Unity candidates were rating
high, it's doubtful that the administration and its allies like Rep.
Nograles will find it a necessity to have the surveys regulated,"
Beltran said.

Mariano, in the meantime, said that having the surveys subjected to
guidelines and regulations based on Malacanang's standards was
tantamount to censorship. "This is state control at its worse – the
Arroyo administration wants to control the functions and the mandate
of the survey groups to conduct random but efficient surveys that
reflect current public sentiment. This is also an insult against the
survey groups the SWS and Pulse Asia," he said.

The Anakpawis lawmakers said that Malacanang and Team Unity's fear of
the surveys was well-founded because the administration candidates
were sorely trailing in the survey results. "But why take it out on
the survey groups? They're just the messengers. Team Unity candidates
are trailing in the surveys because they are associated with Pres.
Gloria Arroyo whose own approval ratings are negative."