SORSOGON CITY—The local officials backing the presidential bid of Vice President Jejomar Binay in Camarines Sur and Pangasinan on Wednesday described the latest surveys as “rigged” and decided to come out with their own internal surveys that showed Binay was the top choice of the voters.
Former Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte and Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco said their camps had separately conducted surveys in their respective bailiwicks and the results were contrary to those commissioned by Social Weather Stations and Pulse Asia.
Binay himself said he could not possibly believe the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys because even Malacañang’s internal survey showed he was leading his rivals.
“History will repeat itself. Watch out for the coming days,” Binay told reporters shortly after his rally at the Sorsogon Provincial Gymnasium.
“The Surveys in 2010 showed I was trailing my rivals but a few days to the elections, my single-digit rating became double and on election day I was elected the vice president.
“These surveys, and I don’t mind mentioning SWS and Pulse Asia, were rigged.”
Villafuerte and Cojuangco said their surveys truly reflected the sentiment of the voting public.
Pangasinan has a voting population of 1.26 million while Camarines Sur, excluding Naga City and Parubcan, had a total voter turnout in 2010 of 644,742. Albay had a total voter turnout of 571,885 while Sorsogon had 323,191.
Villafuerte said their surveys were comprehensive and being done every three weeks in the whole province down to the smallest villages.
“Dito po sa aming survey ay nangunguna si Vice President Binay sa pagkapangulo,” Villafuerte said.
“But we survey based on strategic and tactical reasons. Hindi nga lang namin pina-publish. Why? Para malaman namin ‘yung areas of strength, where are the areas of weakness at doon pinapasukan na namin ‘yon.”
Villafuerte predicted that in this year’s elections those who did the national surveys would be shamed because the results would be contrary to the results of the surveys they had conducted, where Binay was overtaken by his rival Manuel Roxas of the ruling Liberal Party, who ranked third.
“In our survey, Vice President Binay was very much ahead,” Villafuerte said.
“He got 40 percent, a very wide margin from the one next to him who obtained 23 percent. The result was consistent. It came out twice platform-based.”
Cojuangco said their internal survey represented 80 percent of Pangasinan or province-wide.
She said Binay garnered 38.7 percent of the registered voters who preferred him and the one came next to him was Senator Grace Poe at 30 percent of the registered voters.
“All that Vice President Binay needs is the vote of the Solid North. We believe in the Solid North and that’s all he needs to win,” Cojuangco said.
Binay’s running mate, Senator Gregorio Honasan, who was trailing the surveys, said the most conclusive survey would be when the will of the people was reflected in the ballot.
“And we hope that it will be credible, free, clean and honest. That is what we’re hoping and praying for. Otherwise, mananagot sila sa boss nating lahat,” Honasan said.
Binay said he was not bothered that the latest national surveys showed that he was on a “free-fall.”
He said he had stopped monitoring the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys.
“The national surveys have become confusing. Naha-high blood lang ako so I stopped looking at them,” Binay said.