Malacanang has come out swinging against the October 2007 Pulse Asia survey that found President Arroyo the “most corrupt President” in the history of the Philippines.
PMS Chief Cerge Remonde called it “unfair, unkind, and un-Christian.”
Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo said surveys like these were largely irrelevant. “Pinakamahalaga ang walang sawang serbisyo ng Pangulo sa milyun-milyong Pilipino, hindi ang rating niya sa mga survey ng 1,500 tao.”
The insinuation that the small sample size of such surveys rendered them insignificant was echoed in one of Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye’s statements. He said: “We therefore vehemently challenge the survey results which could have been influenced by a number of distorting factors such as the sample (1,200 respondents out of 84 million Filipinos), possibly misleading questions and even the person or persons who commissioned the survey.”
Executive Secretary Ed Ermita later amplified on that last point. Clearly referring to ex-senator Serge Osmena, he said: “It’s a pity that because of politics, certain elements — organizations or individuals – are using the survey as a fodder for their relentless attack on the President.”
Are the President’s men arguing reasonably? Judge for yourself. In Newsstand, I list many links, to Pulse Asia, to previous readings of earlier surveys, to the science of opinion polling. One thing I did not include there, which we can put to good use here, is the Sample Calculator. How big should your sample be, if you want it to be representative of the population you are surveying?
Go ahead. Give it a try.
December 14th, 2007 at 3:14 am
They’re in denial because the can’t accept the truth. That Gloria Arroyo, Is the number one corrupt, Number one liar, Number one human right violation.
It doesn’t matter if the keep denying it. The filipino people knows better. One of these day everything just going to blow-out in their face and they won’t know whats hit them.
December 14th, 2007 at 3:10 am
those gentlemen of Gloria had such comments/ reaction because of the mere fact that whole survey was true and concise,its just that they cant accept of whats the result is.the respondent was just a thousand,what if its the whole philippines and the result are the same,they might file a case againts the company who made the survey coz its shameful on their case.