Noynoy Reacts to Latest Pulse Asia Survey
PRESS STATEMENT OF SENATOR BENIGNO S. AQUINO III
February 3, 2010
1. I am not surprised with this turn of events. First, our opponents have had a long head start in this campaign. And while I diligently perform my functions as a legislator, the others are practically campaigning fulltime, neglecting their mandate with those who entrusted them with their votes. Second, for all the unprecedented and sustained ads spending in all forms of media of the other camp and the unrelenting and increasingly below-the-belt and baseless black propaganda against me by my opponents, not to mention the harassment we have been continuously getting from this administration—the arbitrary transfers and replacement of police directors, the inexplicably adverse rulings we have been getting from Comelec for our local executives, the abrupt cessation of government projects in provinces friendly to us and lately even the denial of venues for our rally sites– I am surprised that I am still on top of the surveys.
2. By the day, it is becoming clear that an unholy alliance is developing between this administration and my opponent. No wonder the Palace spokesman couldn’t restrain himself in expressing his gratitude to one of my opponents for keeping quiet on the many issues confronting this administration.
3. Of course, that is not to say that we do not face challenges in the campaign. Quite a lot, I must say, foremost of which is the ability to bring our message—a clean, decent, transparent and accountable government will put an end to massive corruption, dedicate precious public resources to basic services for the poor and alleviate our people’s hopelessness and poverty—across to as many of our people as possible. It is a strong and relevant message that we are certain has had and will continue to have traction among more and more of our voters. We have been able to address this. In the coming days, we will be able to do this with greater frequency and in a sustained manner through ads.
4. On top of this, I believe that our comparative advantage—the organizational strength coming from our ability to mobilize volunteers all over the country—still has to make itself felt in the campaign. We expect that to happen as we formally start the campaign this February, the historic People Power month.
5. I have been through this before. When I first ran for office as a Congressman in 1998, I faced eight opponents and initially attracted about two-thirds of the votes. After the eight ganged up on me, throwing everything they could at me, my numbers fell to half of what I started with. But since the issues they threw at me did not stick and since I brought a message of change and hope, in the end, I prevailed with plenty to spare.
6. What should not escape all of us is that I still lead the surveys—from the time I declared my candidacy to this day. I would like to assure everyone, especially our supporters, that as the formal campaign period starts, we will work harder to make sure that we remain on top of the fight and the hope of our people for a clean, competent and compassionate government through my tandem with Senator Mar Roxas will be fulfilled.
http://www.noynoy.ph/blog/2010/02/03/noynoy-reacts-to-latest-pulse-asia-survey/
Mabuhay Noynoy Aquino !!! Keep on the fight for good governance, accountability and public trust. More people will support, volunteer for you and vote for you — for real change for the better in our Philippine Government and public service. Take care and God bless always.
[caption id="attachment_1325" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Credible - worthy of belief or confidence"][/caption]
Aquino’s handlers are probably wondering – what went wrong with the “pedigree, winnability, honesty” theme? How come people are no longer buying? It boils down to one word – Credibility.
Credibility is defined as
When there is a gap between the professed ideals and their actual practices, there is a discrepancy – a credibility gap.
Benign0 ought to give Noynoy’s handlers a seminar and pound this into their brains
Noynoyistas will be quick to the defense and ascribe it to Villar’s ad spending. Villar of course, retorts that he is only catching up with the brand that has had a headstart for decades – after all what really is “pedigree” – but a premium brand.
Trust and Credibility
Noynoyistas have been harping around the issue of “trust” as if Noynoy has the monopoly of trustworthiness.
But the deeper question really is “Can Noynoy be trusted to deliver?” – Is he credible?
Let’s look beyond the the rhetoric and try to make sense out of this. so, I went to the digital library of Google University, and ran a search on trust and credibility. Guess what the cat brought in – a study entitled “The Determinants of Trust and Credibility in Environmental Risk Communication: An Empirical Study” by three PhDs (Peters, Covello, and McCallum) – from the Center for Risk Communication.
The abstract read:
The studies conclusions were very revealing:
You can read the study in greater detail below:
[gview file="http://antipinoy.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/crc-p2.pdf" height=200]
TRUST AND CREDIBILITY
The study’s conclusions provide the context why Noynoy’s message of concern, care, and commitment – and honesty.
Noynoy’s campaign theme is based on the premise that Noynoy is the antithetical opposite of Arroyo – in other words, anti-incumbentism. Presenting Noynoy as having more commitment to anticorruption than all other candidates seemed a good idea. But that assumes that such idea will not be challenged. Under the constant assault of newer ideas, the premises of anti-incumbentism begin to unravel.
With the Aquino campaign as backdrop AND the Center for Risk Communication study as a backdrop – one can see that the promise of bigger commitment to anticorruption can only take Noynoy so far – he needs to back this up with a demonstration of his knowledge and expertise on the issues, because he is not addressing government credibility but HIS OWN credibility to be able to deliver on his solutions and prescriptions.
Thus far, what has Aquino’s campaign done? Instead of stepping up to the challenge of demonstrating knowledge and expertise, it has:
1 – Kept Aquino from attending debates and fora. This was based on the premise that by keeping mum, he can keep his lead. I dunno, but to me, that’s a cop-out, that’s chickening out. By depriving Noynoy of the opportunity on which he can be sized against other candidates knowledge and expertise – his credibility suffers.
2 – It kept on with the winnability, pedigree, and ads bursting with emo schlep. That’s a good intro to a campaign. But, one shouldn’t get stuck in the intro. He could have leveraged and built on the goodwill of the Aquino brand – and moved towards issues and define his stance, instead of pandering to everyone with the celebrity-heavy emo crap .
3 – He did not address the issue of Hacienda Luista head-on. Defying a negative is key to improving perceptions of trust and credibility. HLI was clearly a negative that the Aquino campaign was not able to defy. Instead of grabbing the bull by the horns, he did not want to risk angering his haciendero compadres but played it safe instead. Thus, his credibility took another beating.
4 – Lastly, Aquino did not put in a good performance at the Senate. Sen. Lito Lapid filed more thoughtfull bills than Noynoy at least 7 times more. I have more respect for Lito Lapid than Noynoy who logged a measly 9 bills within a period of 3 years. How can one believe Noynoy if he says he will be more ethical and shape up the government when he can’t even shape up? In this case, his legislative output is proof of the pudding on his ability to perform. Fiscalizer? It’s not even a legitimate English word. It is a stretch of the imagination to believe that Aquino can pull it off when he can’t even deliver satisfactory or even come up with mediocre legislation much less outstanding ones given a period of time.
These are the four items that the Aquino campaign has yet to have a handle on. They still don’t get it.
It is no longer enough to harp on vague themes like “trust”. How can one trust Noynoy to deliver when there is a discrepancy in his walk and his talk?
As voters become more sophisticated, more well-informed, more educated – and have the medium for instantaneous exchange of knowledge and ideas – the questions become more pointed. The questions becomes one of trust.. AND credibility.
Positive Campaigning? Yeah right?
As Aquino’s stats go south, the Aquino campaign will raise issues like “what’s in it for Villar”, as this one:
It still misses the point – such a statement does not help Aquino’s case at all. At the very least, one can say – hey, there are truly honest candidates out there – and they deliver world-class results – it’s a toss-up between Gordon and Perlas.
Now if we are to do the math – what is PhP 2.5 to a man whose assets total $530M or PhP 24.3B – check out Forbes list of Philippines 40 richest men. PhP 2.5B is only 10% of Villar’s assets. He can spend another PhP 4B without going broke! And still have so much change.
By focusing on Villar’s spending, the Aquino campaign highlights Villars knowledge and expertise in achieving economic prosperity – and validates Sipag and Tiyaga – and loses out on the opportunity to demonstrate Aquino’s knowledge and expertise (or lack thereof!!!).
Overall, the recent movement in the voter preference augurs well as slackers are eliminated – and candidates with proven ability are given a fair shot at serving their countrymen.
Noynoy has not bagged this election – it’s anyone’s game – thank goodness!
The summary equations produced the following results:
1) For industry, an increase in public perceptions of concern and care results in a larger increase in perceptions of trust and credibility than any other variable under consideration.
2) For government, an increase in public perceptions of commitment results in a larger increase in perceptions of trust and credibility than any other variable under consideration.
3) For citizen groups, an increase in public perceptions of knowledge and expertise results in a larger increase in perceptions of trust and credibility than any other variable under consideration.
4) For society as a whole, the determinants of trust and credibility are not monolithically invariant across organizations and institutions.
The research finds that the determinants of trust and credibility display considerable
differences. Indeed, the three equations show a high degree of diversity. This diversity is
evidenced in the range of the coefficients of determination. Not only did the strength of the
determinants, and frequently the determinants themselves, differ from one equation to another,
but the ability of the determinants to explain the variation in the dependent variable
also displayed a range.
One explanation for the variation in the coefficients of determination of the regression
equations can be found in commonly held stereotypes. Of the three organizations studied, citizen
groups are most often drawn from the general public, and, as such, according to a common
stereotype, are perceived to lack specialized knowledge of public health and safety issues. Support
for this can be seen in Table 10-A, where the survey respondents’ perceptions of knowledge
and expertise are presented. As shown in the table, citizen groups are rated below both industry
and government on this variable. Yet such perceptions are the strongest predictor of citizen
groups trust and credibility. Similarly, industry, according to a common stereotype, is commonly
perceived to care and be concerned only about profits, and minimally about public health and
safety. Support for this can be seen in Table 10-B, where the survey respondents’ perceptions of
concern and care are presented. As shown in the table, industry is rated below both government
and citizen groups on this variable. Yet perceptions of concern and care are the strongest predictor
of industry trust and credibility. Thus, it appears that defying a negative stereotype is key
to improving perceptions of trust and credibility.
Noynoy’s campaign theme is based on the premise that Noynoy is the antithetical opposite of Arroyo – in other words, anti-incumbentism. Presenting Noynoy as having more commitment to anticorruption than all other candidates seemed a good idea. But that assumes that such idea will not be challenged. Under the constant assault of newer ideas, the premises of anti-incumbentism begin to unravel.
With the Aquino campaign as backdrop AND the Center for Risk Communication study as a backdrop – one can see that the promise of bigger commitment to anticorruption can only take Noynoy so far – he needs to back this up with a demonstration of his knowledge and expertise on the issues, because he is not addressing government credibility but HIS OWN credibility to be able to deliver on his solutions and prescriptions.
Thus far, what has Aquino’s campaign done? Instead of stepping up to the challenge of demonstrating knowledge and expertise, it has:
1 – Kept Aquino from attending debates and fora. This was based on the premise that by keeping mum, he can keep his lead. I dunno, but to me, that’s a cop-out, that’s chickening out. By depriving Noynoy of the opportunity on which he can be sized against other candidates knowledge and expertise – his credibility suffers.
2 – It kept on with the winnability, pedigree, and ads bursting with emo schlep. That’s a good intro to a campaign. But, one shouldn’t get stuck in the intro. He could have leveraged and built on the goodwill of the Aquino brand – and moved towards issues and define his stance, instead of pandering to everyone with the celebrity-heavy emo crap .
3 – He did not address the issue of Hacienda Luista head-on. Defying a negative is key to improving perceptions of trust and credibility. HLI was clearly a negative that the Aquino campaign was not able to defy. Instead of grabbing the bull by the horns, he did not want to risk angering his haciendero compadres but played it safe instead. Thus, his credibility took another beating.
4 – Lastly, Aquino did not put in a good performance at the Senate. Sen. Lito Lapid filed more thoughtfull bills than Noynoy at least 7 times more. I have more respect for Lito Lapid than Noynoy who logged a measly 9 bills within a period of 3 years. How can one believe Noynoy if he says he will be more ethical and shape up the government when he can’t even shape up? In this case, his legislative output is proof of the pudding on his ability to perform. Fiscalizer? It’s not even a legitimate English word. It is a stretch of the imagination to believe that Aquino can pull it off when he can’t even deliver satisfactory or even come up with mediocre legislation much less outstanding ones given a period of time.
These are the four items that the Aquino campaign has yet to have a handle on. They still don’t get it.
It is no longer enough to harp on vague themes like “trust”. How can one trust Noynoy to deliver when there is a discrepancy in his walk and his talk?
As voters become more sophisticated, more well-informed, more educated – and have the medium for instantaneous exchange of knowledge and ideas – the questions become more pointed. The questions becomes one of trust.. AND credibility.
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