By Michael Umaming/NEDA-CAR

About 53 percent of Cordillera voters remain unaware of the renewed pursuit for Cordillera Regional Autonomy that the Regional Development Council (RDC) is initiating so that if a plebiscite is to be held tomorrow, 48.8 percent would be undecided.

This was revealed in pulse survey commissioned by the RDC conducted between July to September this year. The same survey showed that 33.7 percent would likely go for a “yes” vote, and 27.5 percent would go for a “no” vote.

The likely “yes” vote is an improvement by 14.8% compared to the result of the survey that the RDC conducted in October 2007 to 2008 where 18.9 percent gave the same answer. On a provincial level, the likelihood of a “yes” vote improved in all the provinces ranging from a 6.5% improvement in Mountain Province to a 30.7% improvement in Apayao.

The likely “no” vote is highest in Ifugao at 21.6% and lowest in Apayao at 9.7%.

The undecided is highest in Abra at 61.3 and lowest in Ifugao at 42.7%.

A comparative table of the pulse survey results in 2007 and 2012 is shown below:

Province/City	2007 Pulse Survey			2012 Pulse Survey
	YES	NO	UND*	YES	NO	UND
Apayao	19.3	7.0	73.8	50	9.7	40.3
Abra	10.3	15.8	74.0	22.9	15.8	61.3
Benguet	19.1	11.5	69.3	34.5	20.8	44.7
Ifugao	24.9	12.7	62.4	42	21.6	36.4
Kalinga	21.1	10.9	68.0	43.2	14.1	42.7
Mtn. Prov.	14.9	25.6	59.9	21.4	19.3	59.3
Baguio City	22.8	19.7	57.5	33.2	15.8	51
CAR	18.9	14.7	66.3	33.7	17.5	48.8

*UNDECIDED

Other findings of the pulse survey are as follows:

1. The number one source of information about Regional Autonomy is Radio/TV;

2. Most respondents said they learned about the renewed move for Regional Autonomy in 2010 or earlier;

3. About 76.8% have not heard of House Bill 5595;

4. About 40.8% said there is a need for Cordillera Autonomy and they would support it; About 24.2% said there is no need for Cordillera Autonomy;

5. About 27.3% said the Cordillera is ready to become autonomous; About 28.4% said the Cordillera is not ready;

6. Most respondents said that the number one aspect in which Cordillera is not ready for autonomy is the economy, followed closely by politics and then culture at far third.

About 5,083 respondents, representing a 91.45% retrieval rate, were surveyed. There were 840 respondents in Abra, 330 in Apayao, 1,170 in Benguet, 906 in Baguio, 621 in Ifugao, 595 in Kalinga, and 621 in Mountain Province.

Sample areas were drawn from the provinces and Baguio City and selection was based on the number of registered voters as of January 2012 which the COMELEC provided. The same was applied in selecting sample barangays, but using the proportion of voting age population with the household population in the 2007 Census of Population to come up with a proxy number of voters.

One eligible respondent per household was interviewed.

The survey was done through the State Universities and Colleges. In Abra, it was through the Abra State Institute for Science and Technology (ASIST), in Apayao, the Apayao State College (ASC), in Benguet, the Benguet State University (BSU),  in Ifugao, the Ifugao State University, in Kalinga, the Kalinga State College (KaSC). The Baguio survey was done through the National Institute of Information Technology and the Cordillera Youth Network for Global Change (CYNGC).

Tne National Statistics Office provided trainings to the enumerators and helped in the analysis of data.

The Report maybe accessed at NEDA-CAR.