Cebu dared to set up local survey stations

The Social Weather Station challenged the Cebuanos, especially the local government and the non-governmental organizations, to put up their own survey stations here.

During the presentation of the latest SWS survey results in Cebu Marriott Hotel last Wednesday, SWS president Mahar Mangahas said this is good because Cebuanos will no longer rely on surveys done in Manila.

He added that if Cebu has its own weather station, LGUs can use the results to know how people perceive and know the developments they want so the local government can improve its services.

"In these days when these political things happen, not only the people in Metro Manila have something to say. It is also important to know what are the perception of the people outside Metro Manila," he said.

With this, he said Metro Cebu should also put up its own weather station to do its survey. "This should be done in local governments. You should not wait for standardization," Mangahas added.

Steven Rood, country representative of The Asian Foundation, which funded the latest survey of the SWS, said that it is important to know the perception of the people in other areas because Metro Manila does not represent the whole country.

"There are regional differences and we need to know what is going around the Philippines," he noted.

This is the reason why SWS included Cebu City, Davao City, Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro City and Iligan City in its latest survey of enterprises in corruption.