A survey conducted by church-run Radio Veritas showed that majority of Filipinos support a "people's initiative" for the renewal of ABS-CBN's franchise.
(Photo by Maria TAN / AFP / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
Based on the Veritas Truth Survey (VTS) that was released Wednesday, 7 out of 10 Filipinos or 68 percent of the respondents are disposed to support a people’s initiative for the renewal of ABS-CBN’s franchise, 30.5 percent refused supporting it, while 1.5% remained undecided.
Geographically, those living in the Visayas had the highest willingness to support a people’s initiative at 80%, followed by those in Luzon at 64% and lastly in Mindanao at 62%.
According to Veritas, those who said "No" in support of the people’s initiative were high among Mindanao residents at 36%, followed by Luzon at 34% then Visayas at 19%.
As for those undecided, the survey said they were relatively same across all geographical locations, which came between 1 to 2%.
The information was gathered through a text-based and online data gathering process.
Article VI, Section 32 of the Constitution said, a people’s initiative requires signatures from at least 3 percent of registered voters in each of the country’s 243 legislative districts and a total of at least 10 percent of registered voters in the country.
After the minimum number of signatures is gathered, the Commission on Elections will verify each of the signatures and hold a plebiscite to approve the proposed measure.
Father Anton Pascual, Radio Veritas president, said the results of the survey reflect the desire of the respondents to uphold the freedom of the press.
"Authentic press freedom is an important mechanism in the delivery of news, stories, insights, and spiritual reflection to our countrymen," he said in a statement.
Bro. Clifford T. Sorita, VTS head, said the results of the survey at least to some extent "mirrors the initial motivation of the respondents needed to jumpstart such an undertaking."
Conducted from July 12 to 25, the survey on the public's support of a people's initiative for ABS CBN's franchise renewal used a stratified sample of 1,200 respondents nationwide for a +/- 3% margin of error.