Erap flays GMA-7 for smear job

By Gerry Baldo

From The Daily Tribune

Link: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100412hed2.html

As his numbers rise in the surveys, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard bearer former President Joseph Estrada said the media are again demonizing him.

Estrada, in an interview during a campaign rally in Malabon on Friday, accused GMA-7 of kicking off a demolition job on him when it came out with a report about his Statement of Assets Liabilities and Networth (SALN) a few days ago.

“They have started the smear job against me, about my SALN. It was all too sudden after my rating at number three started to go up,” he said.

Estrada expressed apprehensions that the media would again ruin his image similar to when he was ousted in 2001.

“My ratings have started to improve and the demonization scheme was started by Channel 7

yesterday,” he said. He added that despite such efforts from media his supporters had not left him.

“Inspite of the demonization of the media when I was incarcerated, the people has not left me. To prove that, Dr. Loi, my wife, and my son, Jinggoy, were elected as senators even if I was incarcerated. They were elected as senators when I was behind bars. That goes to show that the masses have never left me inspite of the demonization of the media against me,” he said.

Estrada also compared to his past movies where he has portrayed the role of the underdog who later on always won his fight in the end, his bid for the presidency.

“Like in the movies I have always been an underdog, but in the end I always win,” Estrada told reporters.

Estrada, reacting to reports that he is trailing behind the presidential race in a three-cornered fight between him and senators Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party and Manny Villar of the Nationalista Party, said that he is taking his chances.

“I’m a risk taker ok, I am a risk taker...” he said in an interview that was incessantly interrupted by campaign jingles of his partymates who were delivering their pieces on the stage set up in the middle of a road in Malabon.

Estrada also said that nobody can stop him from pursuing the presidency that was forcibly taken away from him in 2001.

“Nobody can stop me and nobody can make me withdraw. Only death can make me withdraw,” he said despite offers for him to withdraw from the race and despite the party’s meagre resources.

WHAT EXPERTS SAY When a tie is not really a tie

from Philippine Daily Inquirer

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100310-257739/When-a-tie-is-not-really-a-tie

MANILA, Philippines—“When our report comes out, you will see that we just say it’s a 2-point lead and we’re not calling it a tie. Now the reason I say that is because if it could be a zero lead, it could also be a 4-point lead. It could really range to as high as four. But we’re not saying that. It seems to me that the neutral thing to do is to call it as two, because that’s where it is centered. And if you go to emphasize the tie, you’re really leaning on one side,” Mahar Mangahas, president of Social Weather Stations, says in an interview on ANC.

“I’m saying it’s a statistical tie, but it’s also a statistical 4-point lead. You’re biased if you only go to the low side, not also to the high side. You have to look at everything. Let’s not insist on saying that it’s zero, because it can also be four. To me, that’s the error. Analysts are rushing to say that finally, it’s a tie. It’s not yet a tie.”

Margin of error

“This is not the first time that Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar have come to a “statistical tie.” In the Jan. 22-26 Pulse Asia survey, both were “tied” if the margin of error was factored in,” says Ana Maria Tabunda, Pulse Asia chief research fellow.

Bong, Jinggoy, Miriam still up

by Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)

http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=556547&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - Re-electionist senators Bong Revilla Jr., Jinggoy Estrada and Miriam Defensor-Santiago were statistically tied at first place in the latest senatorial survey by Pulse Asia.

Pulse Asia said 14 candidates have a statistical chance of winning Senate seats if the elections were held during the Feb. 21 to 25 survey period.

The non-commissioned survey showed Revilla getting 53.6 percent of votes, which translates to a statistical ranking of 1st to 3rd place. He is in a statistical tie with Estrada, who got 52.6 percent of the votes.

Santiago received 49.4 percent of votes, which places her anywhere from 1st to 5th.

Another re-electionist, Sen. Pia Cayetano, who received 45.4 percent, ranks 3rd to 6th.

Cayetano shared the same statistical ranking as former Senate president Franklin Drilon with 45 percent.

In sixth place is Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile (43.8 percent) with a statistical ranking of 4th to 6th.

Other senatorial candidates who have a statistical chance of winning were former senator Tito Sotto with 33.2 percent, former senator and former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director general Ralph Recto (33.1 percent), former senator Serge Osmeña (29.1 percent), Ilocos Norte Rep. Bongbong Marcos (28.2 percent).

Estrada eyes steady hike in survey ratings for May win

by Norman Bordadora (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100309-257635/Estrada-eyes-steady-hike-in-survey-ratings-for-May-win

MANILA, Philippines—Deposed president Joseph Estrada has expressed elation over his continued favorable showing in the nationwide election surveys of the Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia.

A few days after Pulse Asia’s survey had Estrada gaining six percentage points in its late February survey, SWS reported in its Business World-commissioned survey that Estrada gained two percentage points from his previous rating in the same SWS survey.

Told that his performance in the SWS survey was not as good as his showing in Pulse Asia’s poll, Estrada said: “Whose numbers went down?”

Estrada was apparently referring to front-runners Senator Benigno Aquino III and Senator Manuel Villar, who both lost points while maintaining their first and second place positions in the SWS surveys.

The pollsters said Estrada and fourth place administration candidate Gilberto Teodoro gained from Aquino and Villar's loss.

The former Chief Executive, who’s running for another term in Malacañang after he was forced out of office in 2001, said that if his numbers would continue to go up, he could win come May.

“Tapos na sila (It’d be over for them),” Estrada said.

Villar, Legarda: Race for May polls still close

by Nikko Dizon (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100305-256869/Villar-Legarda--Race-for-May-polls-still-close

DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur -- They weren’t the least worried with the latest survey results, or at least they managed to show that they weren’t.

Running mates Senators Manuel Villar and Loren Legarda faced the media, on Friday, looking and feeling confident that the crowd turnout in their barnstorming across the country was a more reliable indicator of voters’ preference rather than the latest Pulse Asia survey that showed them trailing behind the tandem of Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Manuel Roxas.

“Let your videos speak for themselves. Let your photos speak for themselves. That’s the real survey. The 1,800 respondents (of Pulse Asia), I respect that. That’s a guide. That’s okay. But if you look at their (Aquino’s and Roxas’) figures , they’ve dropped 20 percent (since last year). They’ve got a big problem,” Legarda, of the Nacionalist People’s Coalition (NPC), said in a press conference here.

“We can see Noynoy and Mar free fall,” she added.

For his part, Villar, the Nacionalista Party standard-bearer, even said he was “quite happy” that Aquino was just ahead of him by a single digit, noting how in the previous surveys, especially last year, he had to contend with the latter’s double digit survey leads.

Cory is most beloved political leader; Marcos is next - survey

by Evelyn Macairan (The Philippine Star)
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=549216&publicationSubCategoryId=63

MANILA, Philippines - Former President Corazon Aquino, mother of Liberal Party (LP) presidential bet Sen. Benigno Aquino III, is the most beloved political leader of Filipinos, according to a recent Pulse Asia survey.

But almost half, or 48 percent, of respondents do not find any political leader worth their love.

Mrs. Aquino led the Pulse Asia January 2010 Pre-election Survey on the “Most-Loved Filipino Political Leader” with 35 percent, while former presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada were listed far second and third with 15 and 13 percent, respectively.

Aquino’s husband former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. landed in fourth place with eight percent, followed by former President Ramon Magsaysay with seven percent.

Villar ties Aquino in presidential race

Roxas pulls away in VP race 

By Veronica Uy (INQUIRER.net)
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100203-251069/Villar-ties-Aquino-in-presidential-race

MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE) Less than 100 days before the May 10 general elections, candidates for president Senators Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Manuel “Manny” Villar are now statistically tied, the January 2010 Pulse Asia survey showed.

The nationwide survey of 1,800 voting age Filipinos, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percent, also showed Senator Manuel “Mar” Roxas II pulling away from his nearest rival and colleague, Loren Legarda.

The survey conducted January 22 to 26 showed that Aquino was the choice of 37 percent of the respondents and Villar of 35 percent of would-be voters.

Compared to the December 2009 survey, support for Nacionalista Party’s Villar improved by 12 percentage points while preference for Liberal Party’s Aquino and former president Joseph “Erap” Estrada declined by eight and seven percentage points, the media release on the survey said.

Only six percent do not have a preferred presidential candidate at the time of the survey.