Friday, April 20, 2007 Congressional bet to file raps vs survey proponent By Ulysses E. Israel
A CONGRESSIONAL bet is set to take a legal action against the organizer of a survey that allegedly deceives and conditions the minds of the voting public.
Former Western Mindanao State University (WMSU) president Dr. Eldigario Gonzales, irked by the results of the survey where he was shown trailing behind his opponent, said he will be consulting his lawyer to take appropriate legal action against WMSU Professor Bien Fernandez, who spearheaded the survey.
Gonzales said Fernandez is using the name of the school on the pretense of using its students who were actually out of school for summer vacation to come up with a survey to "mislead" or "deceive" the public.
He said the survey could be misleading the public and could create swing votes in favor of certain candidates.
Gonzales who was trailing behind his rival in the Statfacts survey got 20 percent rating while his rival incumbent Vice Mayor Beng Climaco got 73 percent.
Gonzales vowed to lodge complaint in the proper forum against Fernandez and called on the new WMSU leadership not to renew Fernandez's part-time teaching job at the university.
Gonzales who is running for representative of District 1 under the Lakas-CMD asked the voting public not to be duped by the poll survey.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) City Election Officer Roy Cuevas earlier urged voters or aggrieved candidates to file formal complaint against any entity for possible violation of the Omnibus Election Code.
When Fernandez was asked for comment he said: "Since year 2000, we have been conducting survey and we have never received a single centavo from anybody to manipulate the result of the survey."
