Gordon mulls suit vs pollsters

TAGBILARAN CITY , Philippines  – Bagumbayan presidential candidate Sen. Richard Gordon is planning to sue survey firms for not seeking his permission to include him in pre-election surveys.

At the same time, he complained that there are surveys that deliberately exclude him.

“Why are they (polling firms) conducting these surveys when my name is not even included? They are ruining my candidacy,” he said in an interview after addressing local business groups here Monday night.

Gordon has consistently lagged in pre-election surveys conducted by major polling firms Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia.

An SWS survey conducted last March 28 to 30 showed that Gordon has an approval rating of only 2 percent, tied with Bangon Pilipinas standard-bearer Bro. Eddie Villanueva.

A Pulse Asia survey conducted from March 21 to 28 showed Gordon having the same approval rating, also tied with Villanueva.

abs-cbnnews.com reported that Gordon is thinking of filing a damage suit against the two firms for not seeking his authorization before being included in their surveys.

He said the results of the surveys are damaging to his campaign. 

“We don’t know how the questions are framed. We don’t know the methodology or what the system is. We know it’s a form of mental conditioning. We didn’t give permission to have our names to be placed there or our names to be published. It’s very, very unfair to us,” he was quoted as saying in an interview with the ANC news channel.

Gordon also denounced the validity of election surveys.

“Surveys are not needed in a democratic society. If you pay for a survey, you can use that as a weapon of propaganda,” he said. “The surveys are just fooling us. If you want surveys, let’s not have an election anymore, let’s just conduct more surveys.”

He said presidential candidates should present their platforms in regional debates.

Pulse Asia chief research fellow Dr. Ana Maria Tabunda told abs-cbnnews.com that Gordon’s reaction is typical of candidates who are behind in surveys.

She said such candidates only see the warm response of their supporters during campaign sorties and not those who do not support them.

She admitted that campaign funders refer to survey results when considering the candidate they will support.