Pinoy voters remain immature - NSCB study

Voting for the same wrong candidates seems to be a hard habit to break for Pinoy voters. After participating in numerous national and local elections for decades, Filipinos have yet to gain wisdom from the political exercise, GMANews.TV learned Tuesday.

A study by Dr. Romulo A. Virola, secretary general of the National Statistics and Coordination Board, showed that there were still voters who re-elected local public officials who had failed to develop the economy of their province.

The study is posted on the NSCB website.

Using data from the 2004 elections, the study came up with a voters’ index that provided indication on the “wisdom" of voters during elections.

This means the index measures whether voters are reelecting candidates in the best and best performing (provinces) and booting out those who are in the worst performing provinces.

In the study, Virola confirmed that “indeed, Filipino voters have not matured" because candidates whose provinces “do badly in the good government index, get reelected just the same."

Statistical data in the study showed that 20 percent of 2004 election voters reelected candidates in 10 worst provinces; 15 percent reelected candidates in the 20 worst provinces and 23 percent in worst 30 provinces.

Meanwhile, there were 22 percent who re-elected candidates in 10 worst performing provinces, 26 percent in 20 worst performing provinces and 24 percent in the 30 worst provinces.

Instead of coming up with the worst and worst performing provinces, the study listed the first 30 best provinces and 30 best performing provinces that attained highest rates in the good governance index.

“Congratulations to those provinces and to their leaders. Those not on the list [try to] grab every chance to catch up and improve [next time]," said Virola in the study.

The first 10 best provinces under the good governance index are: Batanes, Rizal, Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite, Bataan, Benguet, Siquijor, Apayao and Pampanga.

The first 10 best performing provinces are: Siquijor, Northern samara, Oriental Mindoro, Agusan del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, Bukidnon, Aklan, Surigao del Norte, Eastern Samar and Basilan.

In measuring the good governance index of provinces, the study used economic and administrative governance indicators.

Economic governance was measured in terms of the following indicators: per capita financial resources generated, per capita tax and non-tax revenue, per capita bank deposits, per capita expenditure on social services, unemployment and underemployment rates, poverty incidence and poverty gap.

Administrative governance was measured through these indicators: total health personnel per thousand population, percentage of live births weighing less than 250 grams, proportion of households with access to safe water, teacher to pupil ration for elementary schools, number of elementary schools per thousand population, enrolment in government elementary schools per thousand population, cohort survival rate in elementary education, percentage of housing made of strong roofs, percentage of housing made of strong walls, length of national and local roads per thousand population, proportion of energized barangays and telephone density. - GMANews.TV