For many senatorial candidates who take elections seriously and exert great effort to address the important issues of the day, it must be terribly frustrating to be confronted by the results of preelection surveys. Nothing seems to matter except sheer media exposure and possession of a familiar name in order to score high. The preference for incumbents leaves one wondering if the Filipino electorate is content with the way things are.
The Pulse Asia survey results suggest that President Aquino continues to enjoy high approval ratings (68 percent )and trust ratings (70 percent) despite a storm of criticism for his handling of the conflict between the Philippines and Malaysia over the landing of the Sultan of Sulu’s armed followers in Sabah on Feb. 9. It must [...]
This piece is about the University of the Philippines, in view of the coming annual alumni homecoming (June 23, 2012; www.upalumni.ph), which I shall attend as a golden jubilarian. It was in 1962 that I got my bachelor of arts degree, major in economics, from UP. How time has passed; good grief.
As executive director of the “free tuberculosis clinic” in Payatas, Quezon City, I am in contact with hundreds of patients from our barangay and its surroundings.
There are 10 important reasons why surveys should not be conducted and released during the trial.
Some quarters have called for the banning of surveys regarding the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona. These calls for a survey ban seem to have been prompted by the recent release of a few nationwide surveys on the impeachment trial.
An earlier piece (“Poverty fell in 2011 Q4,” Inquirer, 1/28/2012) pointed out that the quarterly SWS poverty surveys also ask the household head of each poor family for the minimum monthly peso budget for home expenses needed in order not to feel that the family is poor. “Home expenses” are explained by the interviewer to the respondent as excluding any work-related expenses, like commuting to work by the household’s earners.
Other than the three “bad-news” Cabinet members he mentioned, it is the Social Weather Stations’ hunger polls that must be giving President Benigno Aquino III headaches. One month SWS reports a million more Filipinos going hungry. A few months later, a million Filipinos are no longer hungry. What’s the man to do? The surveys are [...]
IF SURVEY sniping has grown recently, it’s probably because there are more survey reports to snipe at. Every report displeases some (while pleasing others); so the more the reports, the more the gripes. The world standard sample size is 1,000 per country. Let us dispose first of the common disbelief that a sample of 1,000 [...]
