SWS defends integrity of surveys, denies slants

Amid criticisms that it was slanting surveys in favor of some clients, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) defended yesterday the credibility of its surveys, saying they had always conformed with ethical standards.

One survey conducted by the SWS called Project Rostov, was allegedly "slanted" or "veiled" through the questions asked to make it a campaign tool against the Arroyo administration for the May 14 elections.

Mahar Mangahas, SWS president and Philippine representative to the World Association for Public Opinion Research, said the firm "stands by all the survey findings that it publishes itself, either non-commissioned or commissioned for the purpose of public disclosure."

"SWS thanks the mass media for disseminating these findings, but declines responsibility for whatever spins they may apply," Mangahas said.

Election Commissioner Resurreccion Borra warned the poll survey firms SWS and Pulse Asia to stop using the term "leading" candidates in their reports to prevent creating confusion among voters.

During a hearing held last Wednesday at the Comelec on the complaint filed by senatorial bets of the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) and the party-list group Abakada Guro, Borra told the lawyers of SWS and Pulse Asia that using the word "leading" could insinuate "that the voting has started."

"Why would you use the word leading when no vote has actually been counted?" an irate Borra said, adding that this would connote that the survey results would be the actual outcome of the coming May 14 elections.

Borra lamented that poll surveys "do not serve the purpose of providing educative and instructive information" on election matters.

Mangahas denied the SWS had published distorted survey findings.

He advised the public and journalists to disregard charges of survey malpractices that failed to point to any particular SWS-published or sponsor-published survey findings which were distorted.

Mangahas assailed the distribution to the media of the unpublished "Project Rostov" survey that was conducted on March 18 to 23.

He said the confidentiality of the surveys must be respected since this would be temporary and that SWS would make sure distorted interpretations would be promptly corrected.

KBL senatorial candidate Oliver Lozano said during the hearing that the methodology used in the surveys is questionable, because the answers taken from 1,000 respondents do not represent 45 million registered voters nationwide.

Borra said the small samplings being used by both SWS and Pulse Asia are "too insubstantial to draw any credible conclusions."

"How can a small population be representative of the true sentiment of the electorate?" Borra said.

Lozano also questioned the competence of surveyors employed by the two companies, saying that these personnel are just recruited shortly before a poll is conducted.