Most Pinoys will not vote for Arroyo’s bet – Pulse Asia poll

Most Filipinos will not vote for any presidential candidate endorsed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in the May 10 elections, according to a Pulse Asia survey. The survey, which was conducted among 1,800 respondents, revealed that one of every two Filipino voters (52 percent) said they “will surely not vote" for a candidate supported by President Arroyo. The recent figure showed a nine-percentage-point rise in the number of Filipino voters who are sure they will not vote for President Arroyo’s bet from last October’s 43 percent. Only four percent of the respondents said they would “surely vote" for a candidate endorsed by President Arroyo, while 34 percent remain uncertain whether or not to support her endorsed bet. Pulse Asia said the public reaction to any electoral endorsement by President Arroyo may be connected with her public distrust rating, which reached an all-time high in the January survey conducted by the pollster. According to same Pulse Asia poll, President Arroyo’s distrust rating rose from 67 percent last December to 68 percent in January - the highest since she assumed office nine years ago through the historic EDSA People Power 2 Revolt. Of the respondents who distrust the President, 64 percent said they would not vote for any candidate endorsed by her. Pulse Asia President Ronald Holmes told GMANews.TV that the figures showed a certain “disattachment from the President" among Filipinos. “Would you be influenced by someone you do not trust?" Holmes said in a phone interview on Wednesday. Ana Maria Tabunda, Pulse Asia chief research fellow, meanwhile, said that the distrust rating probably spiked after President Arroyo filed her certificate of candidacy. (See: Arroyo formalizes House bid in Pampanga.) “We don’t have data why it went up but we suspect it started going up after she filed her certificate of candidacy," Tabunda told GMANews.TV in a separate phone interview. The survey was conducted from January 22 to 26, two days after the Commission on Elections junked a petition seeking to disqualify President. Arroyo from seeking a congressional seat. It had a plus or minus two percent margin of error. (see: Comelec junks disqualification case vs Arroyo.) Majority distrust ratings on President Arroyo were also recorded in every geographic area in the country, as well as in all socio-economic classes, Pulse Asia said. Respondents from Western Visayas, which includes the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Negros Occidental, Capiz, Guimaras and Iloilo, gave the President the highest public distrust rating among all regions in the country, which Pulse Asia pegged at 82 percent. The highest distrust rating for Mrs. Arroyo among socio-economic classes was recorded in Classes ABC, where three of four respondents (76 percent) said they have small to no trust in the President. Mrs. Arroyo has been the least popular of the four presidents in the past two decades. She is also the only president to have scored a negative net satisfaction rating. The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews of a sample chosen through probability sampling. It has a margin of error of plus or minus two percent, according to Pulse Asia. - KBK, GMANews.TV