Team PNoy: We don’t control surveys

MANILA, Philippines - A spokesman for Team PNoy said yesterday that the administration coalition doesn’t control surveys on voters’ senatorial preferences.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone made the statement after the leaders of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) expressed disbelief over the result of the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The SWS poll showed that nine administration senatorial candidates were potential winners, while the number of UNA candidates likely to make it went down from five or six in previous surveys to three.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, one of UNA’s “three kings,” questioned the result but not the inclusion of his daughter Nancy in the Magic 12.

“We have nothing to do with the latest SWS survey. We respect it as a scientific method of gauging voter preferences,” Evardone said. “UNA is a crybaby. When UNA was making a good showing, it did not question the surveys. Now that Team PNoy dominated the latest poll, UNA is protesting and making unfounded innuendoes. UNA’s claim that the result of the SWS survey is part of a grand design to manipulate the results of the election is totally absurd and childish,” he said.

He said UNA’s innuendoes are also an insult to professional pollsters, particularly to SWS and the newspaper BusinessWorld, which regularly commissions it to gauge voter preferences as part of its public service.

“UNA should be consistent for it to be credible. The reason why voters are favoring Team PNoy is because UNA lacks credibility and coherence. Whereas Team PNoy has a clear message to the people: We are a partner of President Aquino in his reform agenda,” Evardone stressed.

The nine Team PNoy members in the winning circle in the latest SWS survey were Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, Alan Peter Cayetano, Cynthia Villar, Grace Poe-Llamanzares, Aquilino Pimentel III, Antonio Trillanes IV, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, and Juan Edgardo Angara. UNA’s Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito and Juan Miguel Zubiri completed the 12 potential winners. Gregorio Honasan and Juan Ponce Enrile Jr., both UNA who were previously in the Magic 12, did not make it. Honasan plummeted to 15th place from 5th-6th last month, while Enrile Jr. fell to 13th from 8th-9th in the previous survey.         

Aside from the two, trailing the potential winners were Maria Consuelo Madrigal (Team PNoy), Richard Gordon (UNA), Ana Theresa Hontiveros-Baraquel (Team PNoy), and Ernesto Maceda (UNA).

Sen. Franklin Drilon, Team PNoy campaign manager, also hit UNA and asked if the Vice President is questioning his daughter’s ranking in the survey.

“Is he disputing the good showing of his daughter?” he asked reporters in an interview at the Bukidnon State University, which he said they “rented” out, hinting that this is not their bailiwick. 

Drilon said they are very satisfied with the 9-3 results of the latest SWS survey, but clarified they still have a lot to do to achieve the targeted 12-0 sweep in the May 13 senatorial polls.

Bam Aquino said that the surveys are just a “snapshot” of the real sentiment of the people. “I believe in surveys, but we still have to work harder.”– With Jose Rodel Clapano, Delon Porcalla