A fund-raising survey?

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S

Jonathan De la Cruz

10/18/2009

Was the SWS third quarter survey conducted from Sept. 18 to 21 meant to educate and inform us about the public pulse on the real standing of some 2010 presidentiables and vice presidentiables? Or, was it done and issued for fund raising and organizing purposes? These questions have been asked by some of our readers as they found the said results incredulous if not funny and ridiculous fit only for the garbage bin.

The numbers simply do not add up. It totaled a whooping 165 percent, not 100 percent as we ordinary mortals usually count up to 100 percent, which we know is the maximum acceptable total percentage. I mean how can one believe that Sen. Noynoy Aquino has topped the poll for presidentiables with a whooping 60 percent of total (more than half of those surveyed or 1.1 of every 2 asked chose him) leaving the rest (0.9 of every 2) among the four in the list shown fighting over the balance. If we add up all of the numbers, Sen. Manny Villar, 37 percent, Sen. Chiz Escudero, 21 percent, former President Estrada, 19 percent, the undecided (Don’t know) and then all the way down to GMA (0.5 percent) the numbers add to an unbelievable 165 percent. That’s a full 65 percent over the acceptable percentage total. What is this about?

It turns out the question asked was the key to this anomaly. Respondents were asked, unaided, who would be the “best leader to succeed” GMA and they could chose three. As a result, the figures got skewed to unbelievability, especially since those who added the “rider questions” on the so-called “people’s choice” for the top two positions came out with press releases which tended to highlight Noynoy’s “invincibility.” It would have been better had they used the other result on “who would they prefer for president” and chose only one which showed Aquino getting an overwhelming 51 percent, Villar 20 percent, Estrada 11 percent and Escudero, 8 percent. In this case, DND Secretary Gilbert Teodoro upped his rating from 0.8 percent to 4 percent, which should give a glimmer of hope to his flagging pre-campaign at this time.

That, together with the issued results for vice presidentiables, would have been a bit more believable. In this case, Aquino’s putative running mate, Sen. Mar Roxas, topped the survey with 38 percent, followed by Escudero, 21 percent, Sen. Loren Legarda, 17 percent and Senate President Pro-Tempore Jinggoy Estrada and Makati Mayor Jojo Binay who both got 6 percent each. That adds up to 88 percent with 12 percent undecided which should be a fair approximation of the public pulse at the time of the survey.

By the way, was this not the same survey which was also issued immediately after the 40th day of former President Cory Aquino’s burial and a week or so after Aquino announced his plan to seek the top elective post of the land? If this is the same one and I suspect it is given the period of survey (Sept. 18 to 21) then those who commissioned it (SWS only said these were private individuals) should be up to something. I mean you don’t recycle survey results for nothing. You must have something up your sleeve to do so. Now, even if this is not recycled and I hope it is so there is reason to believe that this one is meant to re-energize the forces, as it were, who have had no occasion to show their wares and beat their drums since the two typhoons which devastated large swaths of Luzon. They tried to get up and about and even work on some contrived “rescue and relief” efforts with the help of their favorite endorsers to no avail. It is good they finally decided to just keep quiet and let those who have really something to contribute to the rehabilitation effort do their thing. Which is why some observers now think the issuance of this survey result is meant to put some fire in the Noynoy-Mar campaign and entry into more vigorous fund raising and organizing. What a way!

By the way, a reader just e-mailed a dispatch from Hong Kong showing the extent of police investigation on the operations of the giant accounting firm Ernst & Young in the territory. It appears that the Hong Kong Police’s Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) arrested E & Y Hong Kong partner, Edmund Tang, on suspicions of forgery in the ongoing liquidation case involving E & Y client

Akai Holdings. The publicly listed company which at one time was Hong Kong’s major electronics company collapsed on a mountain of debts totaling more than a billion dollars. Akai chairman James Ting was arrested and he came out with an affidavit indicting his accounting firm — Ernst and Young. The liquidator confirmed that indeed E & Y was guilty of negligence, falsification and tampering of documents which then became the basis for an out of court settlement which reportedly amounted to $200 million. The case remains one of the biggest business scandal stories in Hong Kong and will probably be carried in the papers for sometime. What bothers is E & Y Hong Kong lodges all coordinating activities (it is the regional headquarters) for E & Y interests in the Asia-Pacific region which includes the SGV/E & Y tie-up in the Philippines.

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