‘Bosses’ say no to Aquino Part 2
President Benigno Aquino III AP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Six in 10 Filipinos are not in favor of President Aquino running for the presidency in 2016 should the Constitution be amended to allow his reelection, a Pulse Asia survey showed.
The poll, conducted from Sept. 8 to 15, asked respondents: “If the Constitution will be amended and the president would be allowed to run again, are you in favor or not in favor of President Aquino running again for the presidency?”
Pulse Asia found 62 percent of respondents not in favor of Aquino’s reelection, while 38 percent said otherwise.
Except in Visayas (50 percent), the majority sentiment is reflected in the rest of Luzon (71 percent), Metro Manila (67 percent), Mindanao (52 percent) and Classes ABC (63 percent), D (61 percent) and E (65 percent).
Under the 1987 Constitution the president has a fixed term of six years without reelection.
Aquino first broached the idea of seeking a second term in a television interview in August.
Elaborating on his plan in an interview with the Inquirer last month, he said that apart from not wanting the gains of his administration to go to waste, he wanted to fend off those who want to destabilize the government, flush out the aspirants for the presidency in 2016 and fight those who want to make him a lame duck.
“If I close the door (to an extension) now, it will embolden these people who want to destabilize [the government],” the President said.
Using face-to-face interviews, the nationwide survey covered 1,200 Filipinos aged 18 and older. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
No to Charter change now
Pulse Asia also found 62 percent of the respondents saying there was no need to amend the 1987 Constitution at the present time. Of this figure, 30 percent said the Constitution should not be amended now but at some time in the future, while 32 percent said it should not be amended now, nor any other time.
The latest mark is 6 ticks up from the 56 percent recorded in October 2010, around the time Aquino marked his first 100 days in office.
Twenty percent said the Constitution should be amended now, down from 40 percent in October 2010.
Those who are ambivalent on the matter totaled 18 percent, up from 4 percent recorded earlier.
The survey also showed 61 percent of respondents were aware about the proposals to amend the Constitution, while 39 percent said they were not.
Majority levels of awareness were recorded in Metro Manila (70 percent), the rest of Luzon (67 percent), Visayas (55 percent), Classes ABC (77 percent) and D (63 percent). Awareness in Mindanao was at 49 percent, while it was 48 percent among Class E.
Other amendments
Among those aware of Charter change proposals, 58 percent said they had “little or no knowledge” of the Constitution, while 42 percent said they had a “great deal or sufficient amount of knowledge.”
The poll released Thursday also covered recent proposed changes or amendments to the Constitution.
Seventy percent of the respondents said they were not in favor of limiting the powers of the Supreme Court to review Executive decisions, while 30 percent said otherwise.
Majority levels of opposition were recorded across geographic areas and socioeconomic classes, ranging from 62 percent in Metro Manila to 79 percent in Luzon outside Metro Manila, and from 63 percent among Class ABC to 72 percent among Class D.
On another issue, 85 percent were not in favor of allowing foreign individuals and companies to own residential and industrial lands, while 15 percent said otherwise.
The majority mark was reflected across geographic areas, ranging from 83 percent in Mindanao to 89 percent in Metro Manila, and socioeconomic groups, ranging from 81 percent among Class ABC to 86 percent among Classes D and E.
Among the issues in the headlines immediately before and during the survey were: the ongoing Senate investigation on the allegedly overpriced Makati City Hall Building II; junking of the three impeachment complaints against President Aquino; transmittal of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law to Congress; and calls for the resignation of Philippine National Police Director Gen. Alan Purisima amid increasing number of crimes involving policemen and Aquino’s expression of trust in the beleaguered police official, among others.–Inquirer Research
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