Instructor sued for ‘erroneous’ survey

A CONGRESSIONAL candidate here has filed an administrative complaint against an instructor of Saint Louis University (SLU) for allegedly conducting a misleading survey.

Rabindranath Quilala filed the charges following claims that his name was not included in the survey forms. Over 1,000 forms were distributed by Sociology students, which Quilala said is “erroneous.”

"The Manny Pacquiao Blog". Click here for stories and updates on the Filipino boxing champ.

“It does not matter to me if I am at the bottom of the survey as long as my name is included in it,” Quilala said.

Quilala’s name was excluded in the question: “who will you vote for congressman?”

“If my name was omitted, chances are, results are not reliable,” Quilala said asking school administrations to keep their students from being used for “partisan” surveys.

The SLU administration immediately acted on the complaint.

A memorandum was issued to the erring instructor and was asked to explain the conduct of the survey.

The memorandum stated questions on the conduct of the instructor, the commissioning organization or group for the survey, the academic requirement justifying the act, and the permission of the administration to hold the survey.

Copies of the complaint Quilala filed were furnished to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Commission on Higher Education (Ched).

Comelec Director Julius Torres said Quilala did the proper thing when he filed the administrative complaint. Based on initial reports, the survey so far, does not violate Section 5 of the Fair Elections Act, he said.

Section 5 states that during the election period, any person, natural as well as juridical, candidate or organization who publishes a survey must likewise publish the (1) name of the person or group who commissioned or paid for the survey, (2) polling firm or survey organization who conducted the survey, (3) the period during which the survey was conducted, the methodology used, including the number of individual respondents and the areas from which they were selected, and the specific questions asked; and (4) the margin of error of the survey and mailing address and telephone number of the sponsor.

The survey together with raw data gathered to support its conclusions must be available for inspection, copying and verification by the Comelec or by a registered political party or a bona fide candidate, or by any Comelec-accredited citizen’s arm, it said.

The Ched meanwhile said the conduct of surveys in general, may be a requirement in the NSTP subject. However, the Ched encourages surveys should be non-partisan as possible albeit its conduct should be monitored and regulated under a school’s internal policies.