(Eagle News) – Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s approval and trust ratings dipped to a low of 31 and 27 percent respectively, with her numbers dropping among all sectors nationwide.
This was according to a Pulse Asia survey conducted on December 10 – 15, 17, 2017 using face-to-face interviews among respondents.
The nationwide survey is based on a sample of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above.
Among the five top national government officials polled, it was Sereno who had the least approval and trust ratings.
President Rodrigo Duterte was the top government official with the highest approval and trust ratings at 80 percent and 82 percent respectively. President Duterte had consistently had high approval and trust ratings, according to Pulse Asia.
The other top national officials included in the poll are Vice-President Leonor Robredo, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who all gained a few percentage points in their approval and trust ratings.
But for Sereno, the ratings had dipped compared to the previous Pulse Asia survey conducted in September 2017, and the lowest ratings were recorded in Metro Manila.
“In the case of Supreme Court Chief Justice Sereno, disapproval for her performance becomes more pronounced in Metro Manila (+14 percentage points). With regard to the latter’s trust ratings, the only marked movement is the decline in Metro Manila (-13 percentage points),” a report on the poll by Pulse Asia Survey noted.
In the September 2017 poll, Sereno had an approval rating of 35 percent, which was even higher than the approval ratings of House Speaker Alvarez, who at the time, only had 33 percent approval rating.
This December 2017, or after only three months, Sereno’s approval rating dipped to a low of 31 percent, while that of Alvarez surged to a 42 percent approval rating.
Likewise, the 31 percent trust rating that Sereno had last September, further lowered to 27 percent, or a decline of 4 percentage points.
The trust rating of House Speaker Alvarez, on the other hand, gained six points — from September 2017’s 31 percent to the December 2017 poll result of 37 percent.
The survey was conducted while hearings were being conducted on the impeachment complaint against the Chief Justice before the House Committee on Justice. In the said hearings, Sereno had continuously refused to attend the hearings and also rejected calls for her to resign.