Corona’s approval rating dips further in latest Pulse Asia survey

MANILA, Philippines—Amid his ongoing trial at the Senate impeachment court, Chief Justice Renato Corona got a high disapproval rating compared with other top national officials, results of the latest Pulse Asia survey showed Thursday.

The nationwide poll, titled “Performance and Trust Ratings of Top Officials of the Philippine Government, Congress and the Supreme Court,” was conducted between February 26 and March 9, 2012, and had 1,200 respondents aged 18 years and above. The survey had a ± 3% error margin at the 95% confidence level and used face-to-face interviews.

According to the poll, Corona registered a disapproval rating of 58 percent while only 14 percent had a positive opinion of the Chief Justice’s performance. Meanwhile, 26 percent of the respondents were uncertain over the matter.

Likewise, the poll showed that Corona had only 11 percent trust rating while 60 percent of the respondents expressed distrust of the Chief Justice.

The survey came days after Pulse Asia revealed the result of its other poll that showed that 47 percent of Filipinos believed Corona was guilty though very few of them were familiar with the ongoing impeachment trial.

In comparison, Vice President Jejomar Binay had the highest approval rating among the country’s top officials, garnering an 84 percent rating. He is followed by Senate President and impeachment court presiding officer Juan Ponce Enrile with 71 percent approval rating.

Between November 11 and March 2012, the overall ratings of Aquino, Binay and Belmonte were practically unchanged while Enrile received an 11-percentage point improvement in his national approval score and a 7-percentage point decline in the level of indecision toward his performance, Pulse Asia said.

In contrast, Corona’s approval rating dropped significantly over the same period. “Supreme Court Chief Justice Corona suffers a 24-percentage point drop in his overall approval rating and a 34-percentage point rise in his overall disapproval score. Ambivalence as regards the latter’s work becomes less pronounced during this period (-11 percentage points),” Pulse Asia said in its report.

President Benigno Aquino III came in third with a 70 percent approval rating while 41 percent of the respondents were indecisive over the performance of Speaker Sonny Belmonte. Belmonte’s only majority approval rating of 54 percent was from respondents living in Metro Manila.

Meanwhile, Aquino, Binay and Enrile still received positive trust ratings. Vice President Binay again got top marks with 80 percent trust rating while Aquino and Enrile ranked second and third with 69 percent and 63 percent, respectively.

Belmonte got only 32 percent trust rating while 48 percent of the respondents said that they were still indecisive over the trustworthiness of the Speaker.

“Not one of the three key government institutions was able to obtain a majority approval or trust rating in March 2012,” Pulse Asia reported but it nevertheless said that the Senate emerged as the most appreciated and trusted among the institutions.

According to the survey, the Senate got a 50 percent approval rating while the House of Representative and the Supreme Court had 43 percent and 41 percent, respectively.

Pulse Asia noted that the major issues preoccupying Filipinos during the conduct of the survey were: “1) the ongoing impeachment trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato C. Corona; (2) the arraignment for electoral fraud of former President and incumbent Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; (3) the death and destruction caused by a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in the Visayas on 06 February 2012;

(4) the commemoration of the 26th anniversary of EDSA People Power I; (5) the controversies involving a few presidential appointees; (6) the death of Negros Occidental Representative Ignacio Arroyo and the fight over his remains; and (7)  the increase in oil prices, fluctuating power rates, declining headline inflation rate, and the record-breaking performance of the Philippine Stock Exchange.”

Pulse Asia also noted that when the field work for the survey was completed, the impeachment court was on recess finishing 26 days of the impeachment trial. The prosecution team, led by Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas rested its case on February 28 and trial resumed on March 12.