More Pinoys trust Erap but find plunder trial ‘too slow’ — SWS

More Filipinos trust deposed President Joseph Estrada than those who don’t as the public expressed impatience over the slow pace of the plunder trial the former leader is facing, a new survey showed yesterday.

Trust in Estrada reached 44 percent of the 1,200 respondents in the Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll for the first quarter of the year, while 36 percent said they have little trust in him. This gives the ousted president a net trust rating of 9.

Estrada particularly enjoyed the confidence of Filipinos in Luzon and Mindanao, while the opinion is split in Metro Manila and Visayas.

Compared to August 2004, distrust in Estrada eased in Visayas, from net 11 to a net 3 rating, SWS said in a statement.

However, this was offset as the Mindanaoans’ trust declined by 18 points, from a net 29 rating to 11.

Impoverished Filipinos in classes D and E remained trusting of the former movie action star. The upper classes ABC kept a distrustful eye on Estrada.

According to SWS, these recent ratings "are only nominal, compared to 1993 to 1999 when Estrada was extremely popular."

Estrada was elected president by a wide margin in 1998 after having served as mayor, senator and vice president of the country. But his reign collapsed in January 2001 amid allegations of corruption and at the height of a military-backed revolution, Estrada was ousted from power. Then Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over the helm.

Estrada is presently under house arrest as he undergoes plunder trial before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.

In the noncommissioned SWS survey, conducted from Feb. 25 to March 10, half of the respondents (54 percent) said the current pace of Estrada’s trial is "much too slow," while 34 percent said it was "moving in the right pace."

Only 10 percent believed the trial was being done in a hurry.

Meanwhile, about half, or 48 percent of the respondents said the government’s treatment of the deposed leader was "just right."

The rest were divided between saying it was too harsh at 27 percent and the same figure believes it was "too lenient."

About half or 52 percent of the SWS respondents paid close attention to developments in the plunder trial. It placed at par with news on government proposals to increase taxes.

The Estrada trial also ranked higher in public attention than the renewed hostilities in Mindanao, ongoing peace negotiations between the government and Muslim separatist rebels, and the court battle involving human rights victims of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, SWS said.