With the impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona heading for an early decision by next month, the number of Filipinos anxious over whether the country is moving in the wrong direction is rising.
While two mainstream public opinion poll organizations, which have acted as purveyors of good news, report that President Aquino still enjoys high popularity ratings, a survey by a third pollster has found that 65 percent of adult Filipinos are anxious over where the country is headed.
In a survey conducted on Jan. 26-Feb. 6, during the first three weeks of Corona’s trial at the Senate impeachment court, this Cassandra of pollsters, Laylo Research Strategies, reported results that proved unsettling to the Aquino administration, which has been intoxicated by the largely adoring and uncritical media coverage of its first 18 months in office.
Taking a contrarian position, Laylo’s survey results show that while President Aquino “continues to enjoy widespread popular support” across socioeconomic groups, there is “a common tendency to withhold judgment” on whether the Chief Justice should be removed from office. The public’s disposition toward the President “is not connected to [its] current attitudes on the Corona impeachment trial,” says the report. Thus, an “overwhelming majority” of 86 percent say they will respect whatever the decision of the impeachment court will be. Only 8 percent will join protest rallies if Corona is acquitted while 2 percent are undecided, and 4 percent will join rallies if he is convicted while 2 percent are undecided, according to the survey results.
This is not music to the ears of the President and his Yellow Horde that has been hysterically calling for a lynch mob to stage a new People Power revolution to put pressure on Corona to resign even before his trial has been completed. If the survey results are accurate, then the call for People Power is based on nothing more than a mirage of self-delusion.
The survey also found that a majority of 57 percent are undecided because they do not know enough yet about the trial. Another 17 percent want Corona removed from office, another 17 percent are hedging, 5 percent think he should be acquitted, while 2 percent “definitely want him absolved.”
Based on these results, pollster Pedro “Junie” Laylo Jr. urged Mr. Aquino to shift the deployment of his vast presidential powers from his single-focus obsession to unseat Corona and irreparably damage the independence of the Supreme Court to other important national concerns, such as revitalizing the faltering economy and alleviating poverty.
The survey results show a public increasingly becoming apathetic and disinterested in the impeachment proceedings. The survey was conducted in the midst of a blitz by the prosecution that bombarded the mass media with a heavy tonnage of documents purporting to show millions of pesos in Corona’s bank accounts and a number of real estate properties undisclosed in his statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.
The survey results suggest that an extended trial would not do the senator-judges and the administration any good, as the public would rather focus its attention on earning a living. The public is really hurting, with 65 percent thinking that the country “is not okay,” according to Laylo.
He also said people were losing interest in the impeachment trial because it had become highly technical and legalistic.
The survey results suggest that the Senate impeachment court has gained the confidence of the public, which expects it to conduct a fair and just trial. This is why 86 percent say they will respect whatever decision it will make on the case.
According to Laylo, of the 65 percent of Filipinos who are anxious over where the country is headed, 40 percent are undecided and 25 percent feel the country is headed in the wrong direction. Only 35 percent say the country is on the right track. In the first few months of the Aquino administration, those saying it was in the right direction was 70 percent. The survey results represent a sharp drop.
Among the anxious 65 percent, there are those whose top concerns are high prices and unemployment. Those concerned about high prices consist of 22 percent among the undecided and 23 percent among those who think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Those who are worried about unemployment consist of 16 percent among the undecided and 14 percent among those who think the country is going in the wrong direction. Comparing those who are anxious with those who are satisfied with the direction the country is taking, fewer are happy with government efforts to curb corruption and address poverty. Among the anxious, only 58 percent (as compared to 78 percent among those who think the country is on right direction) are pleased with government efforts to address poverty.
In a nutshell, the 65 percent are focused on the economic pinch they are experiencing. They are the ones telling the government to set its priorities right. The survey report says the government’s focus on graft and corruption alone is insufficient for the majority. “This is beginning to affect the public’s disposition toward the President,” the report says.
The flow-on effect of the social and economic unrest on the outcome of the impeachment trial cannot be discounted. During the past few weeks, the media have been reporting a growing groundswell of public discussions on the possibility of the acquittal of Corona.