MISSING CONTEXT: March 2021 survey lists 11 preferred presidential candidates

At a glance:

• Claim: A Pulse Asia survey conducted in March 2021 lists 11 people as the top preferred presidential candidates for the 2022 elections.
• Rating: MISSING CONTEXT
• The facts: The ranking of candidates and the percentage of respondents who preferred them don’t match the published results on the Pulse Asia website for their survey conducted from February 22 to March 3, 2021. The published survey lists 13 possible candidates, not 11.
• Why we fact-checked this: This was emailed to Rappler for verification. It was also posted on the “Fact-Checking in the Philippines” Facebook group for verification. The page “MOCHA USON BLOG” shared this post and has since received 2,700 reactions, 356 comments, and 99 shares. 

Complete details:

On Thursday, April 22, the Facebook page “Daughterte New York” posted an image of the supposed results of Pulse Asia’s presidential and vice presidential preference survey for the 2022 elections. The supposed results were from a survey conducted in March 2021 and list 11 preferred candidates.

This was emailed to Rappler for verification. It was also posted on the “Fact-Checking in the Philippines” Facebook group for verification. The page “MOCHA USON BLOG” shared this post on April 22 and has since received 2,700 reactions, 356 comments, and 99 shares. 

This claim is missing context.

The survey results on the Facebook page do not match the results on the Pulse Asia website for their election survey conducted from February 22 to March 3. Pulse Asia says the other table is from a rider question done confidentially for a client.

According to Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes, the results on the Facebook page are from a “rider” question. “Subscribers to our surveys may request the inclusion of their own questions. These questions are framed and finalized by Pulse Asia to conform to the norms of survey research. These questions are referred to as ‘rider’ questions inasmuch as they are included in our regular quarterly surveys,” he said. These results are confidential and are only given to the subscriber that included the question in their survey.

The Pulse Asia survey published on their website lists 13 possible candidates, while the Facebook post only lists 11, two of which are under the heading “Others.”

In the published Pulse Asia survey results, the top preferred candidate is the same, but was preferred by 27% of the respondents, not 29%. At least two people listed in the Facebook post are not in the published Pulse Asia survey results.

There are other differences between the two surveys as well, including the table number and the survey date. The published chart on Pulse Asia is labeled “Table 1” and is dated “February 22 – March 3, 2021.” The chart on Facebook does not match these details.

The vice presidential preference survey results in the Facebook post are also different from the those on the Pulse Asia website.

Pulse Asia published their survey results on Saturday, April 24, which is two days after the Facebook page “Daughterte New York” posted their version of the survey results.

An earlier Pulse Asia nationwide survey on the 2022 elections, conducted from November 23 to December 2, 2020, did not match the results in the Facebook post as well. – Vernise Tantuco/Rappler.com

Editor’s note: This fact check has been updated with an explanation on Pulse Asia’s “rider” questions. The rating has also been updated in relation to this. 

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