DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 28 March) — A follow-up release from Pulse Asia’s February 27 to March 2 survey offers a closer look at why Filipinos trust or distrust the country’s two highest elected officials and shows that even as overall support for Vice President Sara Duterte remains strong (54% nationwide, 97% in Mindanao), criticism of her appears almost strikingly unified, with majority of those who distrust her (26% nationwide, 1% in Mindanao), pointing to alleged involvement in corruption as their primary concern.
The survey examined the reasons behind Filipinos’ trust or distrust in the country’s two highest elected officials. Nationwide, majority trust Duterte (54%) over Marcos (35%); more Filipinos distrust Marcos (44%) than Duterte (26%); while 21% are undecided for Marcos and 20% for Duterte.
In Mindanao, 77% of respondents distrust Marcos, while only 10% said they trust him and 13% are undecided. On the other hand, 97% of respondents in the region trust Duterte, with just 1% expressing distrust and 2% remaining undecided.
Duterte, the subject of impeachment complaints in the House of Representatives, declared on February 18 that she would run for President in May 2028.
Pulse Asia findings highlighted a stark regional divide in overall trust ratings but the breakdown of whyrespondents hold these views reveals a different pattern: one marked by fragmentation in perceptions of Marcos, and concentration in perceptions of Duterte.
Among Mindanawons who expressed trust in Marcos, reasons are spread across multiple categories — including perceived improvements in quality of life (25.7%), assistance to disaster-affected communities (18.3%), and the provision of financial aid or ayuda (18.3%).
Even among those who distrust him in the region, no single dominant narrative emerges, with responses ranging from unmet promises (20.8%) and perceived inaction (21.4%), to failure to fight illegal drugs and criminality (11.2%).
This dispersion suggests that evaluations of the President are largely grounded in lived, day-to-day experience, shaped by material conditions, service delivery, and economic pressures.
Notably, while the most common reason Filipinos nationwide trust Marcos is his perceived fight against corruption (28.6%), this drops significantly in Mindanao, where only 6.8% cite it as their primary reason, indicating that anti-corruption narratives may resonate less strongly in Mindanao compared to more immediate, tangible concerns.
On the other hand, among those who trust Duterte nationwide (54%), reasons are more dispersed — including her perceived leadership capability (12.8%), pro-poor stance (12.7%), courage (12.4%), and approachability or helpfulness (9.1%). In Mindanao, reasons similarly vary, including courage and helpfulness (13.9% each), perceptions of capability (12.7%), strong principles (10.1%), and associations with her political lineage (7.5%), and pro-poor positioning (6.5%).
Perceptions of Vice President Duterte — particularly among those who distrust her — converge around a single issue: corruption, which is also among the grounds cited in the impeachment complaints.
Nationwide, out of the 26% who distrust Duterte, 51.5% cite “corrupt / sangkot sa korapsyon) as the primary reason: 51.8% in the National Capital Region, 47.9% in the rest of Luzon and 73.3% in the Visayas.
In Mindanao, among the 1% who expressed distrust in the Vice President, 90.7% cite alleged involvement in corrupt activities as their primary reason, far exceeding any other response category and reflecting one of the most concentrated patterns recorded in the survey.
A similar pattern appears among the 2% undecided about her trustworthiness in the region, with 47.9% pointing to unresolved issues surrounding the use of confidential, Office of the Vice President (OVP), or Department of Education (DepEd) funds.
Unlike Marcos, whose public evaluation is distributed across multiple concerns, Duterte’s appears to be shaped, at least among critics, by a singular and highly salient issue cutting across both distrust and indecision. While her political base is not fractured, her critics are aligned.
In Mindanao, trust in Marcos tends to be assessed through tangible outcomes: assistance received, programs felt, and economic conditions experienced. By comparison, perceptions of Duterte, particularly negative ones, are anchored less in a range of experiences, than in a concentrated narrative tied to accountability.
Earlier Pulse Asia findings have shown that corruption ranks among the most urgent national concerns among Filipinos at 47%. However, in Mindanao, it registers at a lower level (25%) compared to issues such as illegal drugs and criminality (41% and 31%, respectively) — priorities that have long been central to the policy and governance style associated with the previous Duterte administration.
Within this context, the concentration of distrust towards Vice President Duterte around corruption shows that, even as criticism becomes more unified, the issue driving it is not as central to the region’s broader hierarchy of concerns.
Overall support for Duterte in Mindanao remains strong despite the intensity of criticism among a small segment of respondents, suggesting that, while negative sentiment is sharply defined, it has not translated into widespread erosion of trust. (Bea Gatmaytan / MindaNews)
