"Beware of 'Fooling' Firms" - Braganza

Braganza (R) and President Benigno Aquino III

The Liberal Party’s gubernatorial candidate for Pangasinan, Hernani Braganza, today cautioned his provincemates against the proliferation of self-styled survey firms that are used by wily candidates to boost their political stock during election seasons. “You cannot help but be wary of the motives of so-called survey firms that mushroom in Pangasinan during elections.
 Their findings are so ridiculous that they deserve to be called ‘fooling firms”, not polling firms,” Braganza said.
 Braganza aired the alarm after a previously unknown polling firm held a press conference in Pangasinan last Friday to announce their survey findings, which show Gov. Amado Espino, Jr. leading in the gubernatorial race with a wide margin. The press conference was held a day after President Aquino toured Lingayen and Urdaneta City to endorse the gubernatorial bid of Braganza and campaign for the Team Pnoy candidates in Pangasinan.
 “The release of the survey findings is suspicious, coming a day after President Aquino visited Pangasinan to campaign for Team PNoy candidates,” Braganza pointed out. “It seems my rival is shaking in his boots. In panic, he has unleashed every trick in his book of disinformation tactics to arrest his dwindling public support,” he added.
 Braganza noted that this is not the first time that a previously unknown survey firm has surfaced in Pangasinan to impress on the public that Gov. Espino is leading in the gubernatorial race. He recalled that shortly after the local campaign period started last March 28, two survey firms in Pangasinan released their poll findings showing that Gov. Espino was leading the gubernatorial race with a 90-10 margin. “Suspiciously, the two poll findings bore identical results and released almost at the same time,” Braganza pointed out. “Sampu singko na ang survey results sa Pangasinan at di na alam ng tao kung paniniwalaan pa ito,” he added.
 The LP gubernatorial bet questioned the latest survey finding that showed 99.6 percent of the respondents had already made up their mind who to vote for governor. “I have participated in many elections. It is highly improbable that almost all the voters are already sure who they will vote for a month before actual election day,” he said.
 Interviews for the latest survey in Pangasinan were allegedly conducted from April 19 to 25. Braganza also laughed off the allegation by the survey firm that a total of 2,500 respondents in Pangasinan were interviewed for the latest poll. “The reputable survey firms such as SWS and Pulse Asia can only afford to conduct poll interviews involving 1,200 respondents nationwide. (In the May 2-3, 2013 poll, Social Weather Station commissioned 2,400 respondents. 2,500 samplings were common among Gallop Polls, CNN, BBC, etc - Administrator).These interviews are expensive and I doubt if any pollster in his right mind would spend millions just to have an inkling of who is winning the Pangasinan gubernatorial race,” he pointed out.