66% want Sara to address impeachment charges – SWS

MANILA, Philippines — Six in 10 Filipinos believe that Vice President Sara Duterte should address the impeachment charges filed against her at the Senate, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey commissioned by the Stratbase group showed.

The survey, conducted from June 25 to 29, showed that 66 percent of the respondents agreed that Duterte should “address the impeachment charges to be able to answer all allegations pertaining to the corruption charges filed against her.”

Only 19 percent disagreed with the statement, while 15 percent were undecided.

There was majority support for the Vice President to address the impeachment charges across all areas and socio-economic classes.

It was highest among those in Metro Manila at 76 percent, followed by those in the rest of Luzon at 69 percent, Visayas at 67 percent and Mindanao at 55 percent.

Some 73 percent of respondents in the socio-economic classes ABC also agreed that Duterte should address the impeachment charges, followed by those in class D at 66 percent and E at 62 percent.

According to Stratbase, the result of their commissioned poll reinforces the non-commissioned survey also conducted by SWS in June.

In that survey, 59 percent of respondents said they are aware of the impeachment complaint against Duterte, while 41 percent said they just learned about it when the survey question was asked.

The non-commissioned SWS poll also found that 44 percent of the respondents believe that the Senate deliberately does not want to start Duterte’s impeachment trial.

The SWS second quarter survey had 1,200 respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus three percent.