A majority of Filipinos believe the upcoming House vote on Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment should reflect what the public wants rather than the weight of evidence against her, a new survey shows.
The WR Numero poll, released Friday, found at least four in 10 Filipinos saying legislators should vote in line with majority public sentiment. By comparison, around three in 10 said the vote should be guided by the actual evidence in the impeachment case.
The survey was conducted from March 10 to 17, covering 1,455 respondents across the country through face-to-face interviews.
Smaller shares of respondents pointed to other considerations: roughly one in 10 said lawmakers should follow their personal conscience, while a similar proportion said political alliances should be the deciding factor. About one in 10 declined to answer.
Metro Manila stood apart from the rest of the country on this question. In the National Capital Region, 42% of respondents said evidence should be the primary basis for the vote — the only region where this view came out on top. Outside the capital, public opinion dominated: 45% in Luzon, 44% in Mindanao, and 42% in the Visayas cited it as the preferred basis for the congressional vote.
On the floor count, Rep. Terry Ridon of Bicol Saro, who sits on the House justice committee, told reporters Thursday that approximately 215 lawmakers have already signaled they will vote for impeachment — more than double the 106 votes, or one-third of the House membership, that the Constitution requires to transmit the complaint to the Senate.
That projected total mirrors the vote count from the first impeachment of the vice president last year.
