The latest survey done by non-politicians!

It's election season and there is no doubt that every Tom, Dick and Harry would go out of their way to present their own surveys for their selfish or political ends. My, even Reader's Digest came up with their own "Most Trusted" persons survey, which puts Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, III as number five on that list, while Rosa Rosal topped this survey. Even funnier is the name of Hayden Kho Jr. as number 80th. Is Reader's Digest telling us that women can trust Hayden Kho that if they go to bed with him, their love tryst won't end up being sold in the DvD black market stores?

This is the problem with surveys done at this time; it is almost impossible to believe that there was no political slant, even in that Reader's Digest survey. We've read most of the Social Weather Station (SWS) and Pulse Asia Surveys, but most people say that these two companies have a very high credibility when it comes to poverty index or the like, but when it comes to political surveys, they often sound incredible. So, whose survey can we believe? After all, most of the PR groups handling politicians have their own surveys for their own client's benefit.

A week ago, we came up with the first survey done by the Campaigns & Images Group (Philippines) that was commissioned by United Kingdom and US based companies doing business in the Philippines. A non-government organization that received financial grant from donor countries in the US and the European Economic Community administered the questionnaire on individuals identified by sector, from services, industrial and agricultural, including occupations and age brackets. The first survey done by this group at the end of January 31. 2010 showed that former Defense Sec. Gibo Teodoro had overtaken Erap and was 3rd behind the statistically tied Aquino and Villar.

This new survey asked the question as to who has the better platform of government among the Presidentiables. Here are the latest results.

Sample Depth : 5,100 individuals

Respondents : 4,947 individuals

Methodology : Random pick, Sector-representative

Target Sections : Luzon (2,958); Visayas (5,621), Mindanao (1,581)

CandidateResponse (A) (B) (C) % Pts

SizeLuzonMindanaoVisayas(A to C)

 AQUINO1,16214%6%3%23.00%

 VILLAR1,61018%10%4%32.00%

 TEODORO93010%5%3%18.00%

 ESTRADA2473%2%0.75%5.75%

 OTHERS99811%7%0.25%20.00%

Total4,94757%31%11%99.00%

Confidence Rating and Error Margin Calculation

DescriptionResponse (A) (B) (C)  

SizeLuzonMindanaoVisayas

 Total Response4,9472,8191,533544

 Sample Depth5,1002,9581,581561

 Confidence %97.00%95.30%96.96%96.96%

 Error Margin3.00%4.70%3.04%3.04%

When I first published the first survey, I got calls from many people why that survey wasn't published or made public. My answer was, "This was the most unbiased of all surveys as it wasn't collated to help any political candidate as the survey was commissioned to get into the bottom of who were really leading this Presidential race." But the Campaigns & Images Group allowed me to publish its results.

For this second survey, it is clear that Sen. Manny Villar has now overtaken the survey leader, Noynoy Aquino, III. Villar bagged a 32% or a 9 percentage points lead against survey leader, Noynoy Aquino, while Gibo Teodoro Jr. got 18 percentage points or a mere 6% behind Noynoy. This new or latest survey was conducted by volunteers from the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) between Feb.10 and 20th.

There are surveys being spread around in order to make their candidates look good. But by far, this is the most thorough and the most credible survey that I have ever seen.

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That 8.8 magnitude earthquake that stuck Chile was one of the worst in modern history and should be a wake up call for us that we should all prepare for the worst. We belong to the countries within the "Ring of Fire" where 90% of all earthquakes and volcanoes come from. This latest disaster gave the world a new term when Chilean President Michelle Bachelet declared Chile "a State of Catastrophe!"

 We should all prepare for the worst. Never mind an earthquake; March has always "Fire Prevention Month". We should all look into our homes or offices and check anything that may cause a fire. I already lost a good friend, Rolando Caberte and his daughter and grandson. We can only hope and pray that something like that would never happen again.