Pulse: Filipinos most critical of Corona’s performance

MANILA, Philippines – Filipinos are most critical of the performance of Chief Justice Renato Corona among the top officials in government, the latest Pulse Asia Survey showed.

The survey was released a day after the House of Representatives impeached Corona, with 188 votes, allegedly due to betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution and graft and corruption.

The survey was done between November 10 and 23, however, taking note only of the high court’s issuance of a halt order on the travel restraint of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and subsequent incidents. Corona is being criticized for allegedly being partial to Arroyo.

Corona got an approval rating of 38% and disapproval rating of 24%, the most pronounced compared to the other four top government officials.

Vice President Jejomar Binay continued to enjoy the highest approval rating of 83% and disapproval rating of 4%.

President Benigno Aquino, on the other hand, got an approval rating of 72% and a disapproval rating of 9%.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, meanwhile, got an approval rating of 60% and a disapproval rating of 11%.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. got a 45% approval rating and 16% disapproval rating.

Pulse Asia, however, noted that the overall performance ratings of the government officials do not differ significantly from the last survey in August. The survey has an error margin of +/- 3 percentage points.

Trustworthiness

Trust is also most manifest towards Binay, who got an 83% rating. He registered a distrust rating of only 3%.

Corona, on the other hand, obtained the lowest trust rating of 29% and the highest distrust rating of 27%.

Despite this, 52% approve of the performance of the Supreme Court as a whole. Only 19% disapprove.

On Sunday, Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez said political forces are out to destabilize the high court by “[fomenting] public distrust and resentment towards [it],” In exchange for
“ruthless political objectives,” some quarters are doing it even at the risk of sacrificing the country’s constitutional stability, he said.

He also claimed to have received reports that lawmakers may amend its own rules in order to hasten the impeachment process against Corona by “going straight to the plenary, and thereafter transmitting the articles of impeachment immediately to the Senate.”

He explained section 2, rule II of the Rules of Procedure in Impeachment Proceedings does not allow this.

The rule dictates thus: “Impeachment shall be initiated by the filing and subsequent referral to the Committee on Justice of: (a) a verified complaint for impeachment filed by any Member of the House of Representatives; or (b) a verified complaint filed by any citizen upon a resolution of endorsement by any Member thereof; or (c) a verified complaint or resolution of impeachment filed by at least one-third (1/3) of all Members of the House.” –Ira Pedrasa, abs-cbnNEWS.com