Speaker blames Church for drop in Duterte’s survey numbers
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday lashed out at bishops critical of President Rodrigo Duterte and his bloody drug war, saying the Church should clean up its ranks of pedophiles first.
He pointed to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) as being one of the sources of “noise” that could have pulled down the satisfaction and trust ratings of the President, per the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
“Look at the CBCP. They squawk and squawk,” the Speaker told reporters.
Scandals
“They should fix their priests first. They have many scandals. There are many pedophiles [among them]. They should fix their ranks first. Why don’t they scold their own priests?” Alvarez said.
He said it was possible that the questions asked of the SWS respondents might have been biased against the President.
“Let us look at whether there is no slant here or if it is being used to say the trust in the President has gone down,” Alvarez said.
“First, what were the questions? Second, what areas were surveyed? In Mindanao, there was no decline. In fact, it went up one point. But it went down in the Visayas and Mindanao. So let us ask SWS, what are the areas and what questions were asked,” he said.
Uniform surveys
Told that the SWS questions were uniform every survey period, Alvarez conceded he had not read the reports.
Net public satisfaction with Mr. Duterte plunged 18 points from +66 to +44, while his net trust rating declined 15 points from +75 to +60 in June, according to SWS.
Alvarez also mistakenly attributed to SWS a statement that despite the fall in his popularity “there is still love” for the President.
He ranted that such a remark was unheard of coming from the pollster.
Told that the statement actually came from presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella, Alvarez joked: “Well, for me, it’s hard to talk about love.”
