Senator Tatad and the surveys ENQUIRY Demaree J. B. Raval 03/14/2010

Senator Tatad and the surveys ENQUIRY Demaree J. B. Raval 03/14/2010 Sen. Francisco “Kit” Tatad is trying to make a comeback to the Philippine Senate. He is running under the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino ticket of the hugely resurgent Joseph Ejercito Estrada. Despite his exemplary performance for two terms as senator of the Republic, four years of which as majority leader, and his being in the constant consciousness of the Filipino electorate for the 41 years that he has been in public service, Tatad has yet to land in the top 12 of today’s surveys on senatorial candidates. Tatad is optimistic he will win, and takes comfort in the classic “defeat” of Harry Truman at the hands of the pollsters who had the surveys proclaiming Thomas Dewey as the choice of the electorate in the 1948 US presidential polls. The pollsters were proven wrong, and Truman went on to become president of the United States. Why do the survey results continue to exclude Tatad, who stands head and shoulders above many of those who now revel in their top slots, as churned out by mercenary survey outfits masquerading as crystal ball operators? Tatad — in behalf of the millions who voted for him in 1992 and again in 1995, and those whom he has converted to his side with his scholarly dissection of constitutional issues that would put many lawyers pretending to be constitutional experts to shame — has every reason to wonder why, and he has taken the survey outfits to task, head-on. Tatad says the Social Weather Stations (SWS) should first explain its fatally flawed exit polls in the 2004 elections in Metro Manila before it conducts yet another opinion poll related to the 2010 elections, and that Pulse Asia should disclose to the public how many candidates have paid how much in order to participate in and benefit from the surveys..... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune ALTERNATE URL: http://www.tribune.net.ph/commentary/20100314com3.html

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