SWS: More Pinoys believe Senate deliberately delaying VP impeachment trial

More Filipinos believe that the Senate is deliberately delaying the start of Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, according to the latest Social Weather Survey (SWS) released on Tuesday.

The survey, conducted from June 25 to June 29, found that 44 percent believe the Senate is intentionally stalling the start of the trial, while 25 percent do not think so and 22 percent are undecided. This led to a net belief score of +19 (percentage of those who believe minus percentage of those who do not believe). Nine percent, on the other hand, said they lacked sufficient knowledge to give an opinion.

Belief that the Senate is delaying the trial is dominant in all areas, except Mindanao, which registered a much lower net belief score of +6 (35 percent believe, 29 percent not believe).

The net belief in other areas was at double-digit levels with Luzon outside Metro Manila at +27 (49 percent believe, 22 percent not believe), Metro Manila at +20 (46 percent believe, 26 percent not believe), and the Visayas at +16 (41 percent believe, 25 percent not believe).

The undecided response rate was highest in Mindanao at 25 percent, followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila at 22 percent, the Visayas at 21 percent, and Metro Manila at 17 percent.

The highest proportion of respondents who admitted lacking sufficient knowledge about the issue came from the Visayas at 13 percent.

The survey was conducted weeks after the Senate returned the articles of impeachment against Duterte to the House of Representatives and ordered her to respond to the charges.

The SWS said the survey items cited in the report were noncommissioned and included on its own initiative. The survey used face-to-face interviews among 1,200 adults. It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points for the national percentages and plus-or-minus 6 percentage points each for Metro Manila, Luzon outside Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

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Support for the impeachment was strongest in Metro Manila, which had a net agreement score of +12 (44 percent agree, 32 percent disagree), followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila at +7 (40 percent agree, 33 percent disagree).

On the other hand, opposition to the impeachment was strongest in Mindanao, which posted a net agreement score of -52 (13 percent agree, 65 percent disagree), followed by the Visayas with -18 (28 percent agree, 46 percent disagree).

The survey also measured public awareness of the impeachment complaint filed against Duterte earlier this year. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they were already aware of the issue, while 41 percent learned about it only during the survey interview.