NEWSFLASH
ERAP TRUSTED BY MORE FILIPINOS THAN OPPOSITION, RELIGIOUS LEADERS - SURVEY
Manila, Dec. 6, 2000 - President Joseph Estrada is trusted by most Filipinos much more than any of the leading opposition and religious personalities who have joined forces to oust him from office, according to the latest opinion survey.
In a poll conducted among Metro Manila residents by Pulse Asia on Nov. 25-26, 2000, the President got a net trust rating of plus 6 percent , with 41 per cent of the respondents saying they have "very big trust" in him.
The net trust ratings of leading personalities who have banded together to force Mr. Estrada’s removal from office ahead of his impeachment trial are as follows:
Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, minus 37 percent former President Corazon Aquino, minus 20 percent former President Fidel Ramos, minus 23 percent Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, minus 26 percent Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson, minus 37 percent
House Minority Floor Leader and Chief Prosecution Manager Feliciano Belmonte, minus 9 percent
Pulse Asia, in its summary findings, noted that "leaders of the opposition in particular suffer a continuing erosion in their public trust level."
Filipinos, however, gave very high net trust rating to Chief Justice Hilario Davide and Senate President Aquilino Pimentel, who will both lead the Senate’s historic impeachment trial of President Estrada.
Both Davide and Pimentel got a net trust rating of plus 18 percent.
The President has welcomed the impeachment trial, the process prescribed by the Constitution to determine his fitness to continue serving the people, saying it will accord him the chance to prove his innocence of the charges lobbed at him by Singson.
According to the Pulse Asia survey, 35 percent of the respondents said they have "small trust" in the President while 24 percent said they are "undecided."
As for Arroyo, only 19 percent of those polled said they have "very big" trust in her, while 56 percent said they have "small trust" in her. Undecided respondents totalled 25 percent.
The 41 percent "very big trust" rating earned by President Estrada in the Nov. 25-26 survey was a marked improvement from the 35 percent grade he scored in the Nov. 7 poll of Pulse Asia.
His political opponents’ "very big trust" rating, however, dropped during the same period. From 27 percent, Arroyo’s trust rating shrank to 19 percent; Aquino from 31 percent down to 29 per cent; Ramos from 29 per cent down to 27 per cent; and Cardinal Sin, from 30 per cent down to 26 percent.
Pulse Asia also took note that "the pressure for the President’s resignation which built up quite a bit between Oct. 13 and Nov. 7, 2000 eased significantly in the present survey."
"Agreement with presidential resignation in the last three weeks noticeably dropped (a 7-point decrease from 36 percent last Nov. 7 to 29 percent now)," Pulse Asia observed.
Disagreement or opposition to Mr. Estrada’s resignation "also increased much," the survey showed, from 46 percent on Nov. 7 to 54 percent now, or an increase of 8 points.
The survey further showed that the President, who has committed to champion the poor and give them a better deal in life under his administration, enjoys vast support from the poorest of the poor, with the 58 percent of class E behind him as he fights to prove his innocence while steering the country out of the economic crisis spawned by the mass actions initiated by the opposition.
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