A pre-election survey conducted by The SPARK, the student publication of Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC), ignited controversy after it showed incumbent L-ray Villafuerte trailing in the polls. Villafuerte denounced the survey as 'fake news', leading to threats of censorship and legal action against the publication.
A pre-election survey published Friday, February 7, by The SPARK, the official student-community publication of Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges (CSPC), has ignited controversy and threats of censorship and repression from the school administration. The survey showed incumbent 2nd District Representative and gubernatorial candidate L-ray Villafuerte trailing in the polls among CSPC students for the 2025 election.
Enraged by the results, Villafuerte denounced the publication's post as “fake news,” sparking a tense standoff between his camp and campus publications in the region. The SPARK's editor-in-chief, Paul Luna, confirmed that they were summoned by their administration because of their post. They were specifically asked to delete their post because they were threatened with possible consequences, particularly legal charges. Luna revealed that University President Amado Oliva, Jr., told him they would meet at the CSPC President's Office at 9 am on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Oliva repeatedly said that Luna should delete the post about The SPARK's gubernatorial survey, stating that the current elections are intense and they should be careful about what they post relative to them.In a public post shared on Facebook around 11:00 pm on February 7, Villafuerte accused the publication of releasing fake and manipulated results based on over 500 surveyed students, claiming they were chosen without any scientific or objective methodology. Villafuerte wrote, “There’s a fake survey that is being spread, claiming that the results were from over 500 respondents from Camarines Sur Polytechnic Colleges in Nabua with a population of enrolled students of over 14,000. We know that they only surveyed people randomly, and we also know that it’s not a scientific and objective survey. They simply released a fake survey and fake results.” Luna countered, explaining that the survey only accepted votes from legitimate CSPC students using their school emails and verified school numbers. He added that the mock elections did not give access to outsiders or those without CSPC emails. With the population of 13,939 for the first semester of the current school year, a sample size of 549 with a confidence level of 95% has only a margin of error of +-4%. Of the 549 respondents, only 498 students from Camarines Sur who are registered voters of the said province were allowed to pick their gubernatorial bet. The post was temporarily deleted but was restored due to pertinent censorship and pressure applied on the publication. CSPC also published an official statement clarifying that the survey was solely conducted by The SPARK and they were not involved in any stage or process. They further affirmed that the results do not represent the views or opinions of CSPC as an academic institution. The statement noted, “The survey results based on the responses of only 498 participants, representing a very small portion of CSPC’s student population of over 14,000 students. As such, the results are neither comprehensive nor reflective of the sentiments of the entire student body.”The publication stated that in September 2023, the CSPC administration also censored content posted by The SPARK about martial law when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., visited the school. They added that several attempts to intervene in the publication’s operations and censorship of their critical content have continuously persisted over the years until it blew to the most recent controversy.
Politics Censorship Philippines Political Survey Student Publication University Pre-Election
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