SEN. ESCUDERO GETS HIGHEST TRUST RATING AMONG GOVT OFFICIALS
MANILA, SEPTEMBER 8, 2008 (STAR) By Christina Mendez - Neophyte Sen. Francis Escudero garnered the highest trust rating among all public officials surveyed by Pulse Asia in its Ulat ng Bayan survey for July 1-14.Escudero topped with a 75 percent trust rating among the country’s public officials – President Arroyo, Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Manuel Villar, all incumbent senators, Speaker Prospero Nograles, Cabinet members, former President Joseph Estrada and selected public figures.
Escudero was followed by Sen. Loren Legarda with 71 percent, and Sen. Manuel Roxas II, 69 percent.
Mrs. Arroyo garnered a trust rating of 19 percent; De Castro, 53 percent; Villar, 65 percent; Nograles, 22 percent; and Estrada, 44 percent.
Meanwhile, the Pulse Asia survey also showed that Escudero continues to register a very high approval rating across the country, 79 percent vs 77 percent in March 2008.
Of the 23 members of the Senate included in the same survey, Escudero has an approval rating much higher than the mean (56 percent) and median (53 percent) approval scores recorded for all senators.
Escudero was closely followed by Legarda with a 78 percent approval rating, while Roxas emerged third with 74 percent.
The survey report was based on a multi-stage probability sample of 1,200 representative adults aged 18 and above.
The survey has a plus or minus three percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.
In the period prior to the survey, the news headlines focused on developments having to do with the increasing demand for National Food Authority rice across the country, the granting of subsidies to the Filipino poor particularly through the administration’s Katas ng VAT program, the signing into law of the cheaper medicine and tax exemption bills, the President’s call for review of power rates being charged by the Manila Electric Co., several natural disasters in the country and the world, worsening global food crisis, the continuing increase in oil and food prices, the depreciation of the local currency, and sustained calls for further wage increase and fare hikes.
Atienza calls for unity, challenges Roxas to hold LP convention Monday, September 8, 2008
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, president of the faction of the Liberal Party which parted ways with the group of current LP president Franklin Drilon, yesterday reiterated his call for the unification of the party.
At the same time, Atienza urged Sen. Manuel Roxas II to call for a national election to finally settle the leadership issue in the country’s second oldest political party.
“I implore you, Senator Roxas, let us unite,” said Atienza after speaking of the many victories that the LP won in its 62-year history when it acted in unity.
“Let us gather all the Liberals of the Philippines and there elect, in a free and democratic manner those who will lead our party,” he said.
Atienza made the challenge to Roxas after the election of the new leadership of the Kabataang Liberal ng Pilipinas (Kalipi), the youth wing of the LP, during its 6th National Congress at the Imperial Suites in Quezon City yesterday.
Atienza appealed to Roxas “to open the road to unity, so that a free election of leaders of the LP can be done in the most democratic way possible.”
“This is not about Lito Atienza or Mar Roxas. This goes beyond personalities,” he said. “We cannot elect a Liberal government in 2010 if we are not united.”
Atienza’s challenge came after Senate President Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party confirmed his presidential plans for 2010, and a few weeks after Villar declared that the LP is the least to be watched in 2010 because it is much smaller in number compared to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and President Arroyo’s Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi).
The LP split into two factions after Drilon, then president of the party, and his allies called for the withdrawal of support for Mrs. Arroyo a few years ago. The Drilon faction also supported impeachment calls against Mrs. Arroyo. – Christina Mendez
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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