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By Sam Mediavilla and
Maricel Cruz Reporters
Team Unity spokesman Ace Durano
on Friday dismissed the results of the privately commissioned
February 10 and 11 Pulse Asia survey showing nine Genuine Opposition
candidates and only three Team Unity candidates winning in the City
of Manila.
Durano said the Pulse Asia poll
results could not possibly be an accurate indication of who will win
in May. He recalled past surveys that proved to be wrong.
He said this survey was done too
early in the campaign, “just at the start of the campaign
period” and covers a very small sample of the electorate, “only
600 respondents in Manila.”
In a televised interview, Durano
repeated Malacañang’s previously publicized statement that “at
the end of the day” it will be actual voters who will determine
who wins in the May election” and not surveys.
Durano made the remark shortly
after a report said that Gov. Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar and the
son of Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Rudy Albano, Tonypet
Albano, had been asked to help Team Unity in the work of media
relations.
He explained in a dzMM radio
interview that Evardone and Albano were called in as reinforcements
because majority of the support staff for Team Unity were occupied
in the “Pulong-Sulong” town-hall style meetings, which kicked
off on Thursday.
Pulong-Sulong is a barangay-based
campaign where candidates of Team Unity in groups of three will have
town-hall style meetings with residents of barangays. Through out
the country, these meetings will be held, with Team Unity candidates
talking directly to community leaders and the people. The “Pulong
Sulong” replaces mass rallies.
In the House of Representatives,
majority leaders on Friday called the Pulse Asia survey
“insignificant” and “inconclusive.”
“So six districts of the City
of Manila can now be the voice of the entire country?” they asked
mockingly.
Rep. Antonio Cuenco of Cebu City
(Lakas-CMD), chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations,
and Rep. Isidoro Real of Zamboanga del Sur (Lakas-CMD),
vice-chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, both
rejected the Pulse Asia survey result that only three Team Unity
senatorial candidates will win.
They both cautioned the
opposition candidates about rejoicing too much about the survey
results because the election campaign has barely started.
“It’s too early for GO to
celebrate because the Pulse Survey is not reflective of the
sentiments of our voters nationwide. In Cebu alone, I assure you
that our kababayans, who gave President Arroyo a landslide win in
the 2004 election, will support the administration’s Team Unity
ticket,” Cuenco said.
Cuenco questioned how a mere 600
respondents, or the entire city of Manila for that matter, could
predict the results of the mid-term polls.
“We firmly believe Team
Unity’s genuine platform and the administration coalition’s
strong local machinery will prevail over GO’s empty promises, its
black propaganda-based campaign, and nonexistent machinery,” he
said.
Real, for his part, gave an
unsolicited advice to GO candidates—not to get deceived by surveys
privately commissioned “to avoid being frustrated after the
elections.”
Also vice-chairman of the
Committee on Good Government, Real said “Manilans do not speak for
all the voters nationwide. If we just believe in surveys, then
there’s no more need for the holding of elections. Let’s just
hold surveys.”
Party-list Rep. Crispin Beltran
of Anakpawis, a staunch critic of the Arroyo administration, finds
the Pulse Asia survey as an accurate indicator. “It is somehow
true and accurate. The continuing protest rallies against the Arroyo
administration in many parts of the country only show that the
people wants a better alternative,” Beltran said.
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