MANILA, Philippines - Fewer Filipinos now trust the Senate and the House of Representatives amid the continuing controversy involving lawmakers' pork barrel funds, according to the latest survey of polling firm Pulse Asia.
Based on the survey results released on Monday, the Senate's trust rating dropped from 42 percent in December 2013 to 31 percent last June. The trust rating of the House of Representatives also fell from 39 percent to 29 percent.
Pulse Asia said the Senate suffered a decline in its trust rating in the Visayas (-14 percentage points), Mindanao (-15 percentage points), Metro Manila (-18 percentage points) and Classes ABC and E (-15 to -18 percentage points).
The trust rating of the lower chamber slipped in Class E (-15 percentage points) and Metro Manila (-16 percentage points).
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court continues to enjoy the higher trust rating, although it also decreased slightly from 46 percent to 42 percent.
The high court suffered the largest decline in its scores in the Visayas (-20 percentage points) and in Classes ABC (-10 percentage points).
The Supreme Court also scored a higher approval rating of 42 percent compared to the Senate and the House, which obtained 33 percent and 34 percent, respectively.
"While public assessment of the Supreme Court's work and trustworthiness is essentially constant between two survey periods, the two chambers of Congress experience significant changes in their respective ratings - at the national level and across selected survey sub-groupings," Pulse Asia said.
The polling firm also noted that among the three government institutions included in the survey, not one scored majority approval and trust ratings.
The Pulse Asia survey was conducted from June 24 to July 2 and polled 1,200 Filipino adults from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
he national political issues before and during the survey fieldwork included the filing of plunder charges against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Ramon Revilla, Jr. and the Supreme Court ruling on declaring several acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program as unconstitutional.