House panel’s votes on ABS-CBN do not reflect people’s sentiments

Sayang, that the Social Weather Stations released its survey on the sentiments of adult Filipinos on the ABS-CBN franchise the day after 70 members the House committee on legislative franchises voted to deny it. Only 11 showed clear thinking and voted against the despicable resolution.

The special SWS survey conducted on July 3-6 while the House panel was discussing the ABS-CBN franchise, used mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) among 1,555 adult Filipinos (18 years old and above) nationwide.

The result was 75 percent among the respondents want ABS-CBN’s franchise renewed; only 13 percent disagreed and only ten percent were undecided. That’s the complete opposite of what the members of Congress did last Friday, which leads us to ask whether those 70 ever consult the people they are supposed to represent.

The SWS survey presented two statements:

1.Dapat na i-renew ng Kongreso ang prangkisa ng ABS-CBN upang muli nitong maipalabas ang kanyang mga program ( Congress should renew the franchise of ABS-CBN so that it can broadcast its programs again.)

2. Ang hindi pag-renew ng Kongreso sa prangkisa ng ABS-CBN ay isang malaking dagok sa kalayaan sa pamamahayag (Congress’ non-renewal of ABS-CBN franchise is a major blow to press freedom.)

Respondents had five choices: Strongly agree, Somewhat agree, Undecided, Somewhat disagree and Strongly disagree.

To the second statement that the non-renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise is a blow to press freedom, 56 percent of the respondents agreed 27 percent disagreed and 15 percent were undecided.

Other highlights of the study:

The call on Congress to renew the ABS-CBN franchise was higher in rural areas (81 percent) than in urban areas (70 percent).
The proportion of those who call on Congress to renew the ABS-CBN franchise was highest in Mindanao (80 percent), followed by the Visayas (77 percent), Balance Luzon (74 percent), and Metro Manila (69 percent)
There’s stronger support for ABS-CBN franchise renewal among women (81 percent) than men (70 percent)

I was just thinking, had the survey been released before the voting, would it have changed the mind of some of the 70?

I seriously doubt it. There must be other considerations that compelled the 70 to vote for the killing of ABS-CBN. As the survey showed, it was not the desire of the people.