Team Rama claims survey results favor Mike

CEBU, Philippines - Team Rama campaign manager Councilor Jose Daluz III yesterday announced that based on the latest survey by a business group in Manila, re-electionist Mayor Michael Rama is more popular than his opponent.

The latest survey was conducted last April on two aspects: whether the people are satisfied with how Rama is managing the city, and, if they were willing to vote for Rama if the election was made during the time of the survey.

Daluz said the survey was conducted with some 40,000 city residents or equivalent to eight percent of the 547,681 voting population.

Results showed that 63 percent are satisfied with the way Rama has been managing the city since he assumed as mayor in 2010, while the remaining 37 stated that things were better when Cebu City South District Rep. Tomas R. Osmeña was mayor.

Daluz said Rama got 48.5 percent in the north and south districts on the question on who voters would choose if elections were held right then.

The latest survey result was released last May 1 wherein Osmeña got 45.5 percent ratings. But Osmeña did not give much attention to the survey results, saying they’re from fly by night survey corporations: “If you pay for it you will never lose.”

The survey results showed that Osmeña was more popular than  Rama during the first part of last year, but the lawmaker was slowly overtaken by his opponent in October, and Rama continued to be more popular this year.

Daluz even said the number of undecided persons become smaller from 20 percent when the first survey was conducted in January last year compared to only six percent undecided in the survey results released last May 1.

Rama was happy when the reporters asked him to comment about the latest survey, although Daluz refused to reveal the business group that conducted it.

“Basin gusto tingali sa mga business group nga mahibaw-an nila kinsa sa duha ka kandidato pagka mayor ang angay nila nga suportahan mao nga naghimo sila og survey,” Daluz said. (The business group probably wants to know who they will support in the election that’s why they conducted the survey.)

“Dili na g’yud na mausab ang result. Kanang gamay na lang kaayo nga undecided voters tan-aw namo makuha na lang na sa suporta gikan sa mga sakop sa Iglesia Ni Kristo ug ubang religious groups,” Daluz said as he admitted that the Team Rama candidates had courted the support of INK. (The survey result will no longer change. We just have to get a little more, such as the religious groups.)

Daluz believes that the issue about the two United States Dodge Charger vehicles that were reportedly taken by Osmeña after these were donated to the city by Bigfoot Entertainment might be one of the reasons Osmeña’s popularity had went down.

Rama personally asked the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas to investigate Osmeña about it, but the lawmaker said Bigfoot owner Michael Gleissner did not pursue his plan to donate the two vehicles to the city upon knowing that Osmeña’s term as mayor would end on June 2010.

Gleissner, instead, sold the two vehicles to the lawmaker’s sister Minnie Osmeña, but the vehicles are just parked at the lawmaker’s house in Barangay Guadalupe. –/JPM (FREEMAN)