Party loyalty proved the strongest predictor of where Filipinos stood on the Senate impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, a non-commissioned Tangere survey conducted from July 7 to 10 found.
Respondents who identified as Duterte supporters made up 35 percent of the sample. Within that group, six in ten sided with the defense, and the remaining four in ten had not committed to a position. A near-mirror pattern appeared among the 38 percent who aligned with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., former vice president Leni Robredo, or the Liberal Party: 60 percent judged the prosecution more convincing, with the rest undecided.
Those without partisan ties, 27 percent of respondents, behaved differently. A clear majority in this bloc, 62 percent, said neither side had yet made the stronger case. The minority who had picked a side split down the middle, 19 percent for the prosecution and 19 percent for the defense.
Nationally, the contest was tight. The prosecution held a narrow edge, drawing 32 percent approval for its trial performance against 30 percent for the defense, while 38 percent withheld judgment.
Geography told its own story. Voters in Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon tilted toward the prosecution, 33 percent to 29 percent. That preference flipped in Mindanao, where 34 percent favored Duterte’s lawyers and 27 percent the prosecution. The Visayas stood apart for its hesitation, with 52 percent undecided; the prosecution edged the defense there, 25 percent to 23 percent, among the rest.
Presiding officer Sen. Francis Escudero drew broadly favorable marks. Well over half of respondents, 58 percent, approved of how he ran the proceedings, against 25 percent who did not. Dissatisfaction clustered among Duterte’s backers.
The poll reached 1,200 people nationwide through a mobile application, drawing on stratified random quota sampling. Its regional composition ran 12 percent from the National Capital Region, 23 percent from Northern Luzon, 22 percent from Southern Luzon, 20 percent from the Visayas, and 23 percent from Mindanao, yielding a margin of error of ±2.77 percentage points at 95 percent confidence.
