Sara Duterte, Romualdez biggest losers in November Pulse Asia survey

MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Sara Duterte and House Speaker Martin Romualdez both saw their trust and approval numbers tumble by double digits in the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted in November, made public on Saturday, December 21.

The development came amid the intense quarrel between the country’s second highest leader and the Romualdez-led House of Representatives, which has been investigating Duterte’s alleged misuse of public funds.

Why are the two the biggest losers? As for Duterte, her numbers continue to skid, even in her bailiwicks.

• From 61% of Filipinos trusting Duterte in September, her score dipped to 49% in November.
• Duterte’s trust rating was highest in her bailiwick Mindanao at 81%, but this actually is a drop of 9 percentage points from 90% in September. She also took a nosedive in Visayas, from 74% to 47%. In Luzon and Metro Manila, she scored 37% (down from 47%), and 34% (down from 37%), respectively.
• The Vice President’s approval rating also plunged to 50% in November from 60% in September.
• The Vice President had an approval score of 80% in Mindanao, also down from 93% in September. In the Visayas, she scored 51%, which is 20 percentage points lower than her rating of 71% in September. In Luzon and Metro Manila, her scores tumbled to 40% (from 46%) and 34% (from 36%), respectively.

As for Romualdez, he continues to be the least trusted among the country’s top four officials, and the numbers show there are more people who don’t trust him than people who say otherwise.

• Only 21%, or around 1 in 5 Filipinos, said in November they trust him, down from 31% in September. His distrust rating is higher, at 35%, up from 25% two months prior.
• His numbers suffered the most in the Visayas, with his trust rating decreasing by 14 percentage points, and distrust rating increasing by 24 percentage points.
• His approval rating was down by 7 percentage points, and his disapproval rating rose by 8 percentage points. From 16% in September, 36% of respondents in the Visayas disapproved of his performance in November.

The survey, conducted from November 26 to December 3, came against the backdrop of a high-profile congressional inquiry into Duterte’s alleged mishandling of hundreds of millions of pesos in confidential funds for the Office of the Vice President and the Department of Education, when she was its agency secretary.

Her exit from the Marcos Cabinet in June marked the collapse of the once formidable “Uniteam” alliance that brought her and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to victory in the 2022 elections.

Before the survey was conducted, on November 13, former president Rodrigo Duterte appeared before the House, which was probing the drug war killings during his administration. His daughter, the Vice President, made a surprise appearance to show her support for him, despite previously avoiding House probes into her alleged misuse of funds.

On December 2, an impeachment case was filed by civil society groups against the Vice President. This was followed by a second impeachment rap on December 4, and a third on December 19.

The Vice President has repeatedly claimed that the House was subjecting her to political persecution. Her most avid supporters pinned the blame on Speaker Romualdez.

What about Marcos, Escudero?

Escudero had the most favorable survey results out of the four, with Pulse Asia noting that he is the only one who enjoys majority approval and trust scores, at 53% and 51% respectively.

Marcos’ approval rating was at 50%, dropping by only two percentage points nationally. He lost 12 percentage points in Mindanao, but gained 4 percentage points in Luzon.

The President’s trust rating was at 47% in November, down by 3 percentage points in September.

A total of 2,400 people participated in the survey, which has a margin of error of +/- 2% nationally and +/- 4% in specific geographic areas, both at a 95% confidence level. – Rappler.com