PRESIDENTIAL candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago has topped almost all campus and social media polls, but on Friday she said she does not believe in surveys.
But she said she had received reports that some pollsters had excluded her name in the survey forms being distributed to respondents.
“No one believes surveys anymore because, in the first place, it’s all over social media that my name has been removed from some of the forms used in these surveys, so that the respondents would be forced to vote for other candidates,” said Santiago who is running under her own political party, the People’s Reform Party.
She said several individuals who had been respondents in pre-election surveys said they were forced to write down Santiago’s name on the survey form because it was not on the options provided. Others said they chose “Undecided” instead.
As a result, Santiago belied the results of the latest pre-election surveys, as she urged the public on Friday to guard against “mind-conditioning” by the moneyed candidates and their wealthy supporters.
Santiago has consistently been ranked No. 5 among the five presidential candidates in the May 9 elections based on the results from various pollsters.
In her homecoming speech before supporters at the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City, Santiago urged the millennials to “use their wits and not vote for nitwits,” in the coming elections.
The polls Santiago is inclined to believe are those led by student organizations or campus publications. She has topped almost all such surveys including those held at the De La Salle University Manila, 75 percent; Polytechnic University of the Philippines, 64 percent; “¨University of the Philippines Los Baños, 86 percent; University of Santo Tomas, 66 percent; Ateneo De Manila University, 36.6 percent; U.P. Manila, 59.5 percent; University of Northern Philippines, 35.85 percent; Malayan Colleges Laguna, 54.7 percent; Colegio de San Juan de Letran, 58.5 percent; U.P. Diliman, 41.6 percent;”¨Holy Angel University, 40 percent; University of Asia and the Pacific, 43.2 percent;”¨Adamson University, 64 percent; Ateneo de Naga University, 37.4 percent; U.P. Baguio, 78.2 percent; Philippine Normal University, 76 percent; West Visayas State University, 47 percent; and a U.P. cross-campus survey (Diliman, Los Baños, and Baguio), 56.5 percent.”¨
Santiago’s campaign for the May elections is focused on campus tours, similar to the 1992 campaign that almost won her the presidency.
She is scheduled to deliver a speech at the main campus of Saint Louis University in Baguio City today.