How accurate are these surveys?

How does one lose credibility? Easy… by lying to the people. This is exactly what we said about Social Weather Station (SWS), which has become part and parcel of the propaganda machinery in Malacañang. Remember a couple of months ago when SWS declared that Super Typhoon Yolanda didn’t even make a dent in the popularity of Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III? That statement was greeted with sheer hilarity and ridicule by Netizens who know better what the whole truth is. If I was working with the SWS… I would cover my face in shame!

Even my friends who come from Leyte told me that they are sick and tired of this propaganda trying to prop up the sagging image of the President who has done nearly nothing for the people of Tacloban. My Rotarian friends who went there recently told me that any recovery happening in Tacloban is due to the international aid that swooped down to Tacloban and yes, this includes the private sector… notably the Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (AF) and the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. (RAFI). The national government was only very good in making propaganda and having it published in the front pages and on TV… nothing else! And yes, up to now, P-Noy never visited the devastated towns of Northern Cebu!

Last Tuesday, SWS once more came up with another survey, that the number of jobless Filipinos has hit an all-time high of 12.1 million people! Now we’d like to know from SWS who paid for that survey? How do we know that this is a high or a low figure… pray tell us?

This is the problem of SWS today it has literally ruined its credibility so much that when it comes up with another survey we can no longer trust whether it is accurate or not. Whether they like it or not, SWS has become the Filipino version of the boy who cried “Wolf”! In fact when that survey came out, Netizens made jokes like, “What will SWS say next? That President Aquino is still popular?”

Granted that this time around the SWS is telling us the truth, therefore, it debunks the Aquino election slogan “kung walang korupt, walang mahirap.” Well, under the Aquino regime there are 12.1 million “mahirap” who just can’t find jobs here at home because despite their supposedly anti-corruption campaign, corruption is still very much around and P-Noy can no longer blame this on the previous administration, but his own.

This is a mute testimony and visible proof that despite the Aquino regime’s trumpeting its economic strength as the best in Asia, this economic strength has only enriched those who are already rich, while the poor have increased in number. President Aquino ought to be warned that when you have 12.1 million hungry Filipinos, popular or not, they will turn against you when someone triggers a call to topple the government and believe me, no army in the world can stop millions of hungry people. We saw that in Egypt, in Tunisia and Libya during the Arab Spring two years ago.

This is also a clear indication of the failure of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program a.k.a. Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program whereby billions of pesos were supposedly given to the poorest of the poor to alleviate their plight. At the onset of this program, I already warned the Aquino government that this won’t work because of that old Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for today. But teach him how to fish and he would be able to eat for the rest of his life.” Need I say more?… I told you so.

But DSWD is in trouble that its P3.7 billion doleout program has resulted in “ghost” beneficiaries, which has yet to be investigated. With so much money given out there has to be some kind of loopholes where the corrupt can exploit. Come on, if the DSWD was caught repacking the donated packages of the international aid agencies, surely this kind of corrupt attitude would find its way into the CCT doleout program. But then under the Aquino regime it wouldn’t dare investigate its own. This is the way of daang matuwid and someday… there will be a truth commission where the DSWD (including the SWS) would be brought before so that finally the Filipino people will know the whole truth about the Aquino presidency.

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Another bus has plunged into a ravine killing 17 passengers. Last December 18 passengers were killed also in a bus accident that fell off the Skyway. Yet, what we are seeing in these two incidents is that the Florida Bus plate numbers do not coincide with their franchise licenses. That the two accidents were caused by overspeeding or there was a mechanical failure that caused the accident. Whatever are the reasons for the accident, this brings me back to question the Philippine government why until now Congress has not created a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), a body that should investigate all land, air and sea accidents? Wanted an NTSB!

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