IRKED by the curses aired by President Duterte against the Roman Catholic Church, rabid Catholics have taken it upon themselves to junk senatorial candidates who are clearly subservient to Malacañang. What the Senate needs now, they argue, are not tutas but critical thinkers who would uphold its independence.
However, history has shown no “Catholic votes” dominating the political landscape. Unlike the Iglesia ni Cristo, the Roman Catholic Church does not officially endorse candidates. But while that institution adheres to the separation of Church and State as enshrined in the Constitution, it allows lay groups to choose candidates.
No wonder some of these groups bat for “otso diretso” candidates who vow to exert its check-and-balance function by electing “quality” candidates, not survey frontrunners. Since an election is a serious political exercise, treating it like a popularity contest could be counter-productive. Have we not had senators and congressmen who could not participate in parliamentary debates and interpellations? At the session hall, they only do the 3Ps – pungko, pamati, pauli.
We dread to imagine that, as in the past, we would be installing another inept Senate and House of Representatives kowtowing to a strongman, whose strength depends on their servility.
Whoever votes for candidates based on survey ratings perpetuates mind-conditioning, indeed good for pollsters who make easy money through influence-peddling. The more frequent the surveys, the more money they make. Their sponsors, euphemistically called “subscribers,” are politicians who pay to mind-condition voters who tend to gravitate towards the llamado (whether real or perceived) because they don’t want to “waste” votes.
The print, broadcast and TV media purvey the pollsters’ money-making propaganda. It would be sweeping, however, to accuse these information outlets of collusion; they could have been exploited. But, wait a minute, without media participation, would politicians pay SWS and Pulse Asia millions of pesos for survey “subscription”? No no no no señor!
No person thinking for himself swallows hook, line and sinker the published results of pre-election surveys that tend to induce the voters into voting for the “winning candidates” and to lend credibility to eventual election returns that might have sprung from “hocus-PCOS.”
Oops, the precinct count optical scanner (PCOS) is now known as vote-counting machine (VCM), as if it would change its public image.
The Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) refusal to regulate surveys makes us suspicious of its possible collusion with the pollsters. Common sense tells us that whenever survey results and election results jibe, the gullible public shrugs it off as “authentic.”
Can we blame the cynics for accusing SWS and Pulse Asia of conspiracy to influence voters?
Well, let us not forget that both pollsters have overlapping stock holders in the persons of Felipe Miranda, Rosalinda T. Miranda, Gemino H. Abad and Mercedes R. Abad, among others.
It must have irked them that other pollsters revealing different survey results have surfaced. They include radio stations and state colleges.
We can site instances SWS and Pulse Asia look credible. Predicting Grace Poe to top the on-gong senatorial race would be like predicting sunrise tomorrow, simply because she topped the 2013 senatorial election and was a strong contender for President in 2016.
But that year’s election also unmasked the untrustworthiness of surveys. Let us remember the forgotten fact that Loren Legarda had been topping both SWS and Pulse Asia surveys. It was too bad because in the actual election returns, Loren came in only second to Grace, who had been far behind on 9th place in the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys. (hvego31@gmail.com/PN)
