MANILA, Philippines - Ang Kapatiran vice presidential candidate Dominador Chipeco Jr. yesterday criticized the political surveys being conducted by survey firms, which he said is undermining the democratic processes of the coming May 10 elections.
Speaking with The STAR editors and reporters, Chipeco said that with the election just two weeks away, voters are now having second thoughts whether to vote or not for their candidates who are trailing in the surveys being conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia.
“My supporters would now think twice if they will still vote (for) me because I am in the tail end of the surveys. They might say their vote is a waste because of the survey result,” he said.
Chipeco said that even educated and mature people are affected by the results of surveys and because of mind conditioning, the freedom to choose their own candidates is now jeopardized.
He said the damage done by the surveys is irreparable and may result in the election of a candidate who is not the actual choice of the people.
Chipeco said that Sen. Richard Gordon did the right thing when he filed a civil suit before the Quezon City Regional Trial Court seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the release of survey results.
But he said that even if the lower court issued a TRO against SWS and Pulse Asia, this would no longer reverse the damage done by past surveys.
He said any TRO will cover only one survey and that will not affect the impact of the previous surveys conducted regularly by the two firms.
Chipeco said that the case filed by Gordon, which is expected to drag until after the May 10 election, will serve as a vehicle for the Supreme Court to revisit its ruling on the constitutionality of banning surveys before the election.
The ban on political surveys was actually incorporated in the Automated Election law.
However, the case was elevated to the Supreme Court, which declared the provision unconstitutional.
Chipeco said the High Court should look deeper into the impact of surveys in the minds of voters.
He said if Senator Gordon can get a TRO from the lower court the case will be elevated to the Court of Appeals and eventually back to the Supreme Court.
He said survey firms are raking in millions of pesos since a survey is very expensive.
Chipeco recalled that during his time as a marketing and promotions executive in the early 1980, they had to pay at least P1 million to conduct a survey on the acceptability and perception of the people on the product they want to sell.
“The price of P1 million per survey was in the ’80s. So how much would a political survey cost today?” he asked.