Into the Light: What Majority?

The “Into the Light” series seeks to bring to the light the lies and half-truths that organizations like Likhaan disseminate in their quest to pass the RH bill without it being fully understood by the Filipino people, not even the lawmakers that support it. Starting with this post, Filipinos for Life will address claims from the pro-RH people to show our readers the TRUTH that they need to know and share with others.

For reference: Ten Good Reasons to Pass the RH Bill Now

Likhaan claims:

Majority have supported RH in endless surveys while congressional and presidential debates have erupted on the issue.

This “majority” that they refer to comes from Pulse Asia’s October 2008 Survey (full text here) and Social Weather Station’s 2008 Survey. Pro-RH folks call this the “clamor” for RH services. However, survey veterans would know that one can construct almost any survey to come up with certain desired results. Manny Amador and Julio Meridio show how the above surveys accomplished this. But even without these thorough analyses, you’ll notice that the SWS questions linked above were framed in such a way that would lead the respondents to give pro-RH answers. Moreover, Pulse Asia’s team of analysts are made up of several pro-RH folks. A sampling: Ana Maria Tabunda, Maria Cynthia Rose Banzon Bautista, Arsenio Balisacan, and Emmanuel de Dios. Pulse Asia bills itself as

an enterprise launched by professional academics with acknowledged expertise in their respective fields of study, dedicated to monitoring salient socio-economic, political and cultural issues in the minds of the Filipino public,

but they are not monitoring the minds of the public as much as they are seeking to mold the public’s mind to image their own.

If you like surveys, at least take a look at the Filipino Family Survey which you may view in its entirety here. This survey was produced by Gallup International affiliate Asia Research Organization and HB&A. It is not without its critics — that’s a given — but it’s still a good idea to see the questions and answers for yourself, and judge which survey may be reflecting what Filipino people really think regarding these issues. More thoughts on this survey from Manny Amador.

At any rate, they say pictures paint a thousand words.

When the pro-RH people say majority, did they maybe mean this?

Or this?

Or maybe they meant these?

Oh wait. Those last three were us. My bad.

ETA: As one reader points out, majority means NADA when we’re talking about right and wrong. We at Filipinos for Life believe in doing the right thing, whether the majority agrees with us or not. And this bill is not the right solution for our country.