Probe of foreign survey firms sought

Pollsters or provocateurs?

Senate President Blas Ople called yesterday for an inquiry into the operation of fo-reign survey firms in the country to determine if they violate the constitutional provision reserving ownership of mass media to Filipinos.

In a resolution, Ople cited the survey group HB&A whose recent opinion poll conducted in Metro Manila showed that if snap elections were held today, Pre-sident Estrada would lose by a wide margin to Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or Sen. Raul Roco.

Ople said the HB&A research purportedly involved some 500 respondents covering a cross-section of society as part of the firm's regular omnibus consumer survey series.

"Can consumer surveys be utilized to interfere in the nation's political affairs?" Ople asked.

He said his resolution would be referred to the

Senate committee on constitutional amendments, revision of codes and laws headed by Roco.

At the same time, Ople slammed those advocating the snap election.

He pointed out that the President was elected to a six-year term by a landslide vote of the people.

In a statement, Ople also called on the media to require survey firms to state the methodology and sampling error used to "enable the public to discern whether a particular survey is credible or not."

The HB&A survey showed that the decline in Mr. Estrada's popularity had stopped, while a mock poll indicated that he was trailing behind Arroyo and Roco in the snap election scenario.

"There is a need for transparency and a thorough review of the survey methods being used by private firms to ensure that all efforts were done to remove biases in the survey," Ople said.

Ople called on the media to carefully scrutinize and if possible, publish the questions asked in the survey.