Survey shows 53.5% Filipinos trust Senate as impeachment court

MANILA, Philippines – Around 53 percent of Filipinos trust that the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, will be fair in its proceedings, an August 2026 national survey by Momentum Research showed.

According to the survey, of the 1,487 Filipinos surveyed, 40.4 percent are confident and 13.1 percent are very confident that the impeachment court will be impartial in judging the case of Vice President Sara Duterte.

Meanwhile, 28 percent have low confidence and 5.4 percent have very low confidence in the court. Another 9.7 percent were not sure, while 3.4 percent refused to answer.

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Impeachment court spokesperson Atty. Reginald Tongol said in a statement that the survey is indicative of “the court’s strict adherence to the rule of law.”

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“These commanding numbers obliterate any manufactured narrative that Filipinos are losing trust in the proceedings, proving instead that the public deeply appreciates a solemn judicial tribunal rather than a chaotic political circus,” Tongol stressed.

READ: Thinking Trillanes is ‘not welcome’ in trial is a ‘baseless assumption’ – Tongol

The survey likewise showed that 38.6 percent of the respondents believe that senator-judges would use the strength or weakness of evidence to convict or acquit Duterte.

On the other hand, 30.8 percent said the senator-judges would base their decision off of the public opinion, 13.6 percent said it would be dependent on their political alliances, 6.4 percent said it would be based on their own conscience, and the remaining 10.6 percent either refused to answer or said they were not sure.

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According to Tongol, the survey results on the parameter show that Filipinos prefer an evidence-based verdict.

“While a few disgruntled voices outside the chamber complain that adhering to strict procedural safeguards is “boring,” the numbers clearly show the Filipino majority recognizes that true justice cannot be circumvented for media entertainment,” Tongol concluded. 

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Another parameter measured in the survey is whether or not the proceedings have been fair and impartial thus far.

To this, 36.1 percent think it has been biased, 7.6 percent believe it has been very biased, while 34.2 percent say it has been impartial, and 5.7 percent think it has been very impartial. 

READ: Tongol: Trillanes has free speech but impeach court to rule on trial evidence

Tongol surmised that the response from the public shows that the impeachment court has shown political neutrality.

“With 36.1% viewing the proceedings as unfair against 34.2% finding them fair, the Impeachment Court views the deeply divided public sentiment on the trial’s fairness not as a weakness, but as the ultimate badge of absolute neutrality. This tight statistical split proves the scales of justice remain perfectly balanced,” he noted.

He continued: “This near-even split is the ultimate proof of the Impeachment Court’s unbending independence.”

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Momentum Research conducted the nationwide survey from August 18 to 23, 2026. /jpv