SWS Survey: 79% Pinoys want GMA to impeach

THE 158 members of the House of Representatives who junked the impeachment complaint against President Arroyo apparently don’t have their ears to the ground.
The  Social Weather Stations‘ latest nationwide survey shows that in the last few days of the recent House justice committee hearings on the impeachment complaint against the president, 79 percent of Filipinos wanted Arroyo impeached, 64 percent favored her resignation, and 51 percent said she should be removed by people power if the House would reject her impeachment.
The SWS attributed the negative sentiment to what it said was the belief of most Filipinos that Arroyo’s phone calls to “a Comelec official” amounted to instructing him to cheat in the 2004 election.
Of the 57 percent believing that the phone calls gave instructions to cheat, 89 percent were pro-impeachment, 80 percent were pro-resignation, and 62 percent were pro-people-power, according to the quarterly Social Weather Survey.
Those calling for impeachment comprised 90 percent in Metro Manila, 82 percent in Mindanao, 79 percent in the balance of Luzon, and 69 percent in the Visayas. The higher the socio-economic class, and the higher the schooling, the greater the support for either impeachment or resignation of Arroyo.
The survey also found that only 22 percent had much trust in the House, while only 24 percent had much trust in the Senate.
Arroyo’s net satisfaction rating remained low at -23, but was an improvement over the -33 she got last May 2005, said to be the record low for all presidents beginning with Corazon Aquino.
The SWS polled 1,200 adults nationwide from Aug. 26-Sept 5. The survey has sampling error margins of ±3 percent for national percentages and ±6 percent for area percentages.