‘Public relations executives know too well that demeaning the outcome of any survey is a blunder.’
PRESS Undersecretary Claire Castro has probably done President Bongbong Marcos a disservice by putting down a recent Pulse Asia survey that showed a 17% drop in the latter’s trust ratings. She called it “false info” and questioned the professional and scientific method of random sampling that has been historically accepted the world over.
Public relations executives know too well that demeaning the outcome of any survey is a blunder.
What would Castro say of upcoming surveys with positive findings on the President? Would she say this was also “false info?” Whatever happened to the term damage control?
Castro also called up the owner of a media publishing and production company to unleash a cussing tirade. The latter did a podcast along with this columnist, criticizing her negative reaction to the survey. The two of us were quite blunt in dressing her down with my friend, the company executive, calling her ignorant and incompetent in the mishandling of the latest plunge of the presidential ratings.
The more professional conduct would be to graciously accept the outcome of a recent survey and admit certain limitations or inadequacies in the performance of the President, with assurances that the latter was doing well in implementing better options to effectively enhance his governance and leadership.
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Political killings are on the rise again, the latest being the re-electionist mayor of Cagayan town, Isabela.
Before the fatal shooting that took place during a campaign rally, Kerwin Espinosa, a confessed drug lord who is running for mayor of Albuera, Leyte, was shot and wounded, along with two of his relatives.
Two police officers and five of their men have been charged with attempted murder for the attack on Espinosa. Alert police units immediately apprehended the suspects in a van.
The PNP has so far recorded five deaths from nine incidents of political violence.
Through the years, assassins or hired guns in political and election-related ambushes and killings have mostly remained at large, with the masterminds unidentified. It is almost a known fact that many families of victims of political violence and killings have resorted to bloody reprisals against the criminal perpetrators since they have lost their trust in our otherwise broken criminal justice system.
PNP findings have shown that private armies of political dynasties have rarely engaged in violent encounters with rival candidates or their followers, but that politicians have, instead, hired assassins to do the job. So far, nothing has been heard from the PNP on any crackdown on loose firearms before and during the campaign period.
PNP Chief Gen. Rommel Marbil should find a way, with the national police force’s huge intelligence resources, to ferret out hundreds of firearms kept by political families and warlords.
