Recent polls survey from Investigative Agency of Journalists based in Mindanao shows 65% +/-4 favors Pacquiao , 30.09% +/- 4 for Chongbian and 4.01% remains undecided.
EXCLUSIVE REPORT from SARANGANI, Philippines, April 28, 2010 – As Manny Pacquiao continues to search and capture the hearts of the voters in the hinterlands, Roy Chongbian’s camp begins to flounder.
Both neophytes, Pacquiao and Chongbian, are contesting for this May 10 congressional elections in the lone district of Sarangani, a section located in the SOCCSKSARGENregion in Mindanao .
SOCCSKSARGEN is an acronym that stands for the region’s four provinces and one of its cities: South Cotabato, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City.
Recent polls survey from Investigative Agency of Journalists based in Mindanao shows 65% +/- 4 favors Pacquiao , 30.09% +/- 4 for Chongbian and 4.01% remains undecided. Most of that variation, referring to +/- 4 margin of sampling error, occurs within the range that should be expected from a survey, especially in an area in which the participants are mostly less informed or not use to the process of polls protocol.
Said polls survey was a two-week long procedure. Random sampling was taken irrespective of social income and gender aging 18 and above – all from municipalities of Alabel, Glan, Kiamba, Maasim, Maitum, Malapatan and Malungon, totaling 2,500 respondents, according to an exclusive transcript to this writer from the said agency.
“This polls survey was conducted in a very strict process so as not to deprive each candidate of impartiality,” says Loue Martinez who heads out a group of young journalists to conduct a political weather survey specifically in the province of Sarangani where all eyes from the international scene are on because of Manny Pacquiao’s popularity worldwide. “Our group just wants to make sure we get the best pulse from the hearts of Sarangani.”
According to the last general elections in 2007, Sarangani has a total voting population of 222,912.
Meanwhile, Chongbian invokes confidence during his campaign sorties in the villages, banking on his family’s well-oiled political machinery and accomplishments in the province of Sarangani.
According to Wikipedia, Sarangani was part of South Cotabato and held its title as the Lone Third District of South Cotabato before its inception in 1992. The province was created by Republic Act No. 7228 on March 16, 1992, penned by the late Congressman, James L. Chiongbian. His wife, Priscilla L. Chiongbian is the retired Governor of Sarangani, who is the mother of the Incumbent Third-termer Congressman Erwin Chongbian and Congressional Candidate Roy Chongbian.
