NEWSFLASH
MORE PINOYS WANT ERAP TO STAY -- SURVEY
Quezon City, Dec. 18, 2000 - Believe it or not, most Filipinos still pin their hopes of a better life on President Joseph "Erap" Ejercito Estrada.
A nationwide Social Weather Station (SWS) survey commissioned by ABS-CBN showed that at least 47 percent of the respondents believed that President Estrada should set aside politics and focus on sustaining the social and economic gains the country has been achieving in recent months.
Despite a brewing political crisis, the Philippines achieved a significant 5.8-percent growth in its Gross National Product and a 4.8-percent upswing in its Gross Domestic Product.
The GNP represents the sum of all goods and services, including income remitted by overseas Filipino workers and firms abroad, produced over a given period. The GDP excludes foreign remittances.
Noted were the brisk growth in the agricultural and fishery sectors pegged at 5.5 percent and 5 percent, respectively; the 4.4-percent surge in industrial production; the 6.7-percent rise in manufacturing value-added; the 18.3-percent growth in exports; and the 22.9-percent increase in merchandise receipts.
The ABS-CBN/SWS survey said that many people in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila and suburbs), where anti-administration mass actions are conducted regularly, still want to see President Estrada leading the country.
The survey said 51 percent of the NCR respondents believe the President should not resign in the wake of an impeachment trial, prompted by accusations that he partook of jueteng payoffs, launched against him by his detractors.
Only some 32 percent said he should resign while 17 percent could not give their opinion because they do not know enough about the impeachment case.
Outside Metropolitan Manila, President Estrada continues to enjoy the people’s vote of confidence, the ABS-CBN/SWS survey showed.
In Luzon, 47 percent of the respondents said the President should not resign against 23 percent who said the President should step down. In the Visayas, it was 38 percent against 32 percent in favor of non-resignation. In Mindanao, it was a whopping 51 percent to 19 percent vote of support for President Estrada.
What was most noticeable in the survey was the fact that the masses, who sent the President to Malacañang in the last 1998 presidential elections, continued to support the President. The survey said an average 48 percent of the masses voted that President Estrada should not resign against a mere average of 22 percent who said otherwise.
Earlier, the same ABS-CBN/SWS survey showed that majority of Filipinos are getting to dislike leading members of the opposition.
Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and former Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel Ramos, the survey implied, no longer enjoy the people’s trust they were perceived to have earlier commanded.
Arroyo, Aquino and Ramos in attempts to pressure the President to quit Malacañang earlier sided with Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson who accused President Estrada of receiving jueteng payoffs.
The countrywide survey on public trust said Arroyo got a negative nine, with 41 percent of the respondents saying they had little trust on her.
Aquino and Ramos were marked a negative five each. At least 43 percent of the respondents said they had little trust on Aquino while 41 percent expressed they had little trust on Ramos.
In contrast, President Estrada amassed a plus 10 score as 43 percent of the respondents said they had much trust in the President.
The ABS-CBN/SWS survey polled 1,200 respondents nationwide from December 8 to 11.
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