By DUCKY PAREDES
THE latest Pulse Asia presidential survey shows Manny Villar trailing Noynoy Aquino by 12 statistical points. With an estimated 50 million voters, one statistical point translates to roughly 500,000 votes. Consequently, considering that the survey has a plus or minus margin of error of two percent, Villar would need 5,000,000 to 7,000,000 votes just to catch up with the leader. With just 19 days to go before the elections, that will require quite a sprint.
More significantly, Villar’s survey ratings for the past three cycles have been on a steady decline. From a high of 35 percent, it dropped to 27 percent, and finally to 25 percent. Those 10 to 14 percentage points can be interpreted as a minimum of 5,000,000 people becoming disillusioned with Mr. Sipag at Tiyaga.
Villar and his wife Cynthia have been quoted many times as saying that these survey results do not bother them at all. Is that grace under pressure, or simply false bravado?
Click DUCKY PAREDES.
Obscene
By ELLEN TORDESILLASIT’S so obscene, I can’t find the right words to express my outrage over the gall of Justice Secretary Alberto Agra to clear Zaldy Ampatuan, suspended governor of the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao, and his uncle Maguindanao Vice Gov. Akmad Ampatuan Sr. of complicity in the most heinous crime this country has experienced and shocked even the a violence-weary world.
It’s also obscene hearing Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar describe as “an obscenity” the public’s accusations about Malacañang’s role in absolving the two Ampatuans of responsibility in the Nov 23 Maguindanao massacre that claimed the lives of at least 57 people, 32 of them journalists.
The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility is right. “The real and current obscenity in this country is the fact that the alleged president for whom Olivar speaks has become central to the major issues that beset this country, most particularly that of whether there will be a change in its putrid leadership rather than more of the same despite the 2010 elections.
Click Ellen Tordesillas
Pulitika2010 