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 9:30 pm
ooopss….sorry. it should have been addressed to Bert, not to Kabayan. i’m sorry, kabayan…
methinks, bert, kabayan, engkanto views are the same.
December 14th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
to kabayan….
t is unfortunate that you lumped me up together w/the govt. officials of gma, or lackeys, as one would call them. just because i do not side w/ the opposition does not mean i am for gloria. i have been consistent in my opinion re this. if you can give me a better alternative than the ones in the horizon, i might be persuaded. till now, all you offer us is just the litany of sins, NO Solutions. the solutions you offer like snap elections or resignation is out of the question, kasi, ayaw nga umalis e. online petition? e hindi rin umubra e. mag-isip pa kayo ng iba.
i can sense that what you want is for us to denounce publicly gma, ok, i can do that. but after denouncing her to high heavens, what now? what course of action do we take?
as a person, i can only do my part by not doing what the corrupt people are doing…pay my taxes properly, obey all the laws, and not do shortcuts, etc. do you do that too?
so, it is not fair for you to include my name as would-be respondents in a survey tog. w/the govt. men and apologists. i am not paid and will not be paid by anyone….my views are not for sale…
ang hirap sa inyo, if one is not for the opposition or is against your views, you consider that condoning corruption, or gma fanatic na, w/c is absurd…mababaw…
December 14th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
padang, lito i. m. did not say ‘if gma is the most corrupt, e ano ngayon?’ there was a ‘as perceived’ qualifying ‘corrupt’.
the problem with the survery is that it was not meant to measure corruption. it wasnt even meant to show that arroyo is corrupt. it was a device by the opposition to sustain the depiction of arroyo as corrupt, to sustain the zeal of the arroyo-haters.
i dont like arroyo. perhaps, she may be even proven to be corrupt. but i’m not an arroyo basher because the antics of these pathetic losers turn me off.
December 14th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
“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.”
Any student of marketing research can easily refute the Palace claim that the base of 1200 is too small to represent 84 million Filipinos.You don’t need to interview the whole population to know the national pulse!
Basically, all polls are alike in that they are based to some extent on the theory of mathematical probability, which means that by polling a sample of a certain population, if each member in the population has an equal chance of falling into the sample, a number of unknowns can be predicted for the entire population.
Even in America with a national population of 303 million people (3.6x the Philippine population), a sample of 1,500 interviews is the standard in national opinion polls (polls conducted by television and newspapers generally have a much smaller sample size), because it has an error margin of plus or minus three percentage points, at a 95 percent confidence level, which is considered acceptable.
December 14th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
eto talagang mga bayaran ng amo nila mukhang huli nyo ng sweldo ang kukubrahin nyo ah! hindi kasi kayo marunong magdepensa sa amo nyo eh!
sa tingin ko terminated na kayo at magpapasko kayo na walang laman ang tiyan! haha niyari namin kayo ah hehe!
kasi naman etong mga pinaargue dito na bayaran kng ano ano sinasabi eh. ni hindi alam sinasabi o kng nagiisip ba. hihirit lng eh palpak pa ayan edi nahanapan namin kayo ng butas.
uwi na kayo ah! retreat muna kayo! esep esep muna kng saan nagkamili bago uli sumabak dito sa mga forum na ganito. nahahalata tuloy kng nag aral ba kayo or what eh. tapos tuturuan mo pa mag argue kng saan sila nagkamali. kamote talaga. malamang row 4 eto nun nagaaral.
yun iba dyan na shock absorbers ng amo mukhang magpapasko kayo sa kalsada namamalimos kumakatok sa bintana ng oto kunwari walang nakikita haha!