Survey shows Cha-cha still ‘unpopular’ with Filipinos — Senate leaders

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said that the findings of the survey by private pollster Pulse Asia, which was released on Wednesday, show that Charter change is an “unpopular move.”

Senators will be studying the matter “carefully,” Zubiri added.

“These are things to be weighed in and carefully put into consideration by the subcommittee and the Senate as a whole,” the Senate leader said.

Similarly, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said that the survey results point to the inauthenticity of the people’s initiative campaign that was launched early this year.

“Our bosses have spoken. Klarong klaro po na peke ang isinulong nilang P.I. (People’s Initiative) at hindi po Charter change ang kailangan ngayon ng taumbayan mula sa gobyerno,” Villanueva said in a separate statement.

(Our bosses have spoken. It’s clear that the people’s initiative that they carried out is fake and CHarter change is not what the people need from their government.)

Villanueva said he is now leaning more toward voting against Resolution of Both Houses 6, which proposes economic amendments to the Charter.

According to private pollster Pulse Asia’s latest survey, a whopping 88% of Filipinos do not support revisions to the Charter at this time, wich dips only slightly for those who are not in favor of Charter change whether now or in the future (74%).

Only 8% said that they believe that the Constitution should be amended now, according to the Pulse Asia survey.

The survey also found that regardless of socio-economic background, most were not in favor of current proposals to lift foreign ownership restrictions in the 1987 Constitution as contained in the House’ and the Senate’s resolutions to amend the Charter.

For instance, just less than a quarter or 24% were in favor of allowing foreigners to own schools or universities, followed by foreign ownership in media and advertising (19%) and communications and internet companies (19%).