Roughly half of Filipinos have yet to form a view on whether senators will set politics aside when they sit in judgment of Vice President Sara Duterte, a finding that pollster OCTA Research reads as a sign of how unsettled public sentiment remains heading into the impeachment trial.
In a survey fielded from April 20 to 24, 49 percent of respondents were undecided on whether the senator-judges would rule strictly on the law and the evidence. Another 32 percent doubted that the chamber would do so. Only 19 percent expressed confidence that the merits of the case, rather than political calculation, would drive the verdict.
OCTA attached particular weight to the size of the undecided bloc. The firm suggested those respondents may simply be reserving judgment until the Senate shows how it intends to run the proceedings.
“Because the survey was conducted before senators began hearing evidence, receiving arguments or undertaking formal deliberations, many respondents may have been expressing uncertainty about how the process would unfold rather than firm opinions regarding its eventual fairness or outcome,” the group said. It added that “these findings suggest that public opinion remains fluid and may evolve considerably as the impeachment proceedings progress.”
The pollster framed the numbers less as a forecast of the outcome and more as a warning about credibility. “The findings suggest that the central challenge facing the Senate may not simply be determining the outcome of the impeachment case but establishing public confidence in the integrity of the process itself,” OCTA said.
Even as a constitutional and political exercise, the firm noted, the trial carries an expectation among many citizens that the verdict be visibly anchored in fact. “While impeachment is inherently a political and constitutional process, the survey findings suggest that many Filipinos place importance on senators demonstrating that their decisions are informed by the evidence, the law and the merits of the case rather than by political considerations alone,” it said.
The timing of the polling matters. Both this survey and a companion poll were taken before the upheaval that reshaped the Senate’s leadership in recent weeks. That separate poll registered broad support for the trial going forward, with 74 percent of respondents agreeing that Duterte should answer the allegations against her in a Senate proceeding.
Who will actually gavel the trial into session has been its own point of contention. Sen. Panfilo Lacson indicated that Sen. Francis Escudero, a former Senate president, would take the presiding officer’s chair. Newly installed Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, speaking Thursday, declined to get ahead of his colleagues, saying he did not want to preempt the senators’ own discussions on the question. Escudero is no stranger to the role’s scrutiny, having faced criticism over delays tied to an earlier impeachment effort against the Vice President in the previous Congress.
