MIRIAM: NO ONE BELIEVES SURVEYS

Presidential candidate Miriam Defensor Santiago belied the results of the latest pre-election surveys, as she urged the public on Friday to guard against "mind-conditioning" by moneyed candidates and their wealthy supporters.

Santiago, who has topped almost all campus and social media polls since the filing of certificates of candidacy, said reports have reached her that some pollsters have excluded her name in the survey forms distributed to respondents.

"No one believes surveys anymore because, in the first place, it's all over social media that my name has been removed from some of the forms used in these surveys so that respondents would be forced to vote for other candidates," the senator said.

Several individuals who claim to have been respondents for pre-election surveys charge that they had to write down Santiago's name on the survey form because it was not on the options provided. Others said they chose "Undecided" instead.

In her homecoming speech before supporters at the University of the Philippines Visayas in Iloilo City, Santiago urged millennials to "use their wits and not vote for nitwits," in the coming elections.

The polls Santiago is inclined to believe are those led by student organizations or campus publications. She has topped almost all such surveys, including:

De La Salle University Manila, 75 percent;

Polytechnic University of the Philippines, 64 percent;

Universilty of the Philippines (U.P.) Los Baños, 86 percent;

University of Santo Tomas, 66 percent;

Ateneo De Manila University, 36.6 percent;

U.P. Manila, 59.5 percent;

University of Northern Philippines, 35.85 percent;

Malayan Colleges Laguna, 54.7 percent;

Colegio de San Juan de Letran, 58.5 percent;

U.P. Diliman, 41.6 percent;

Holy Angel University, 40 percent;

University of Asia and the Pacific, 43.2 percent;

Adamson University, 64 percent;

Ateneo de Naga University, 37.4 percent;

U.P. Baguio, 78.2 percent;

Philippine Normal University, 76 percent;

West Visayas State University, 47 percent; and a U.P. cross-campus survey (Diliman, Los Baños, and Baguio), 56.5 percent.

Santiago's campaign for the May elections is focused on campus tours, similar to the 1992 campaign which almost won her the presidency. She is scheduled to deliver a speech at the main campus of the Saint Louis University in Baguio City Saturday.