A newly founded polling firm has found that resistance to Vice President Sara Duterte’s alleged threats against the country’s top officials extends even into the ranks of her own supporters, complicating the defense argument that her remarks were never genuine threats at all.
Momentum Research, which describes itself as non-commissioned and nonpartisan, reported that 44.2 percent of respondents in the same July poll still named Duterte their top choice for president in 2028 — yet 79.7 percent judged her alleged threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and former House speaker Martin Romualdez to be unacceptable. Only 12.3 percent found them acceptable, 5.4 percent were undecided, and 2.6 percent gave no answer.
The gap held firmest among the vice president’s own base. Among respondents who identified as pro-Duterte, 70.1 percent still called the alleged threats unacceptable. That figure climbed to 82.5 percent among pro-Marcos respondents, 83.5 percent among independents, and 85.1 percent among those aligned with the opposition.
Momentum Research framed the numbers as a direct test of the central dispute now playing out in Duterte’s impeachment trial. Much of the public argument has turned on whether her November 2024 statements amounted to a real threat, but the firm said the responses indicate that most Filipinos found the remarks objectionable whether or not they were treated as conditional.
The disapproval spanned every region surveyed. Rejection ran highest in Luzon outside the capital at 86.7 percent, followed by Metro Manila at 77.8 percent and the Visayas at 76.5 percent. Mindanao, the Duterte family’s political stronghold, registered the lowest share at 69.4 percent — still a clear majority.
The controversy stems from a viral video in which Duterte said she had arranged for someone to kill Marcos, the first lady, and Romualdez should she herself be killed. Her defense team has maintained that the statements were “not threats in the first place,” characterizing them as the words of a woman acting to protect her family rather than an impeachable act.
The July 13 to 16 survey drew on face-to-face interviews with 1,438 adults nationwide and carried a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
