Escudero tops senator-judge ratings; 49% would acquit VP Sara Duterte

Nearly half of Filipinos surveyed by Pulso Intelligence Labs Inc. said they would find Vice President Sara Duterte not guilty in an impeachment trial, while Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero received the highest public rating among 21 senator-judges covered by the research firm’s first weekly scorecard.

Pulso Intelligence’s Aug. 18, 2026, public opinion report found 49% of respondents would vote not guilty if the decision on Duterte’s impeachment were theirs, compared with 34% who would vote guilty and 17% who were neutral, putting acquittal sentiment 15 percentage points ahead of conviction sentiment.

The firm calculated that 16 of the 17 percentage points represented by neutral respondents, equivalent to 94% of that bloc, would have to move toward conviction for the guilty position to overtake the not-guilty side.

Even if all 17 neutral points shifted toward conviction, the guilty side would lead the not-guilty side by only 2 percentage points.

Pulso Intelligence noted that the 49% not-guilty share remained short of an outright majority, while 51% of respondents were either for conviction or neutral.

The results came from 1,500 Filipinos of legal age surveyed nationwide on Aug. 15–16, 2026, with responses weighted to represent regional population and demographic differences.

The same respondents rated senator-judges on trust, performance, and fairness using a 1.00–3.00 sentiment scale, with 1.00 considered wholly negative, 2.00 neutral, and 3.00 wholly positive.

The overall score is a composite of those three measures, and all 21 senators included in the survey scored above the 2.00 neutral midpoint.

Escudero ranked first overall with 2.92, including 2.89 for trust, 2.95 for performance, and 2.92 for fairness.

Escudero also ranked first individually in trust, performance, and fairness.

Christopher “Bong” Go placed second overall at 2.86, with scores of 2.87 for trust, 2.84 for performance, and 2.89 for fairness.

Go ranked second in trust and performance and shared a 2.5 rank in fairness because tied positions were assigned their average rank.

Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano ranked third overall at 2.85, with 2.82 for trust, 2.81 for performance, and 2.89 for fairness.

Cayetano ranked fourth in trust, third in performance, and shared the 2.5 fairness rank.

Bam Aquino was fourth overall at 2.82, posting 2.82 for trust, 2.80 for performance, and 2.85 for fairness.

Aquino ranked fourth in each of the three individual measures.

Robinhood “Robin” Padilla placed fifth overall at 2.81, with 2.82 for trust, 2.77 for performance, and 2.84 for fairness.

Padilla ranked fourth in trust, fifth in performance, and fifth in fairness.

Raffy Tulfo ranked sixth overall at 2.80, with 2.81 for trust, 2.76 for performance, and 2.81 for fairness.

Tulfo ranked sixth on all three measures, with his trust and fairness scores tied at 2.81.

Loren Legarda placed seventh overall at 2.76, recording 2.78 for trust, 2.72 for performance, and 2.79 for fairness.

Legarda ranked seventh in trust, shared the 7.5 performance rank, and ranked seventh in fairness.

Pia Cayetano ranked eighth overall at 2.73, with 2.74 for trust, 2.72 for performance, and 2.75 for fairness.

Cayetano ranked eighth in trust, shared the 7.5 performance rank, and ranked eighth in fairness.

Deputy Minority Leader Imee Marcos was ninth overall at 2.72, recording 2.71 for trust, 2.71 for performance, and 2.74 for fairness.

Marcos ranked ninth in trust and performance and shared the 9.5 fairness rank.

Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan placed 10th overall at 2.67, with 2.68 for trust, 2.65 for performance, and 2.74 for fairness.

Pangilinan ranked 10th in trust and performance and shared the 9.5 fairness rank.

Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian ranked 11th overall at 2.64, with 2.65 for trust, 2.62 for performance, and 2.69 for fairness.

Gatchalian ranked 11th on all three individual measures.

Risa Hontiveros placed 12th overall at 2.62, with 2.63 for trust, 2.61 for performance, and 2.67 for fairness.

Hontiveros ranked 12th on all three measures.

Panfilo “Ping” Lacson ranked 13th overall at 2.59, recording 2.59 for trust, 2.59 for performance, and 2.66 for fairness.

Lacson ranked 13th in each individual category.

Camille Villar was 14th overall, also at 2.59, with 2.58 for trust, 2.56 for performance, and 2.65 for fairness.

Villar ranked 14th in all three measures.

Manuel “Lito” Lapid placed 15th overall at 2.58, with 2.56 for trust, 2.54 for performance, and 2.63 for fairness.

Lapid shared the 15.5 rank in trust and performance and ranked 15th in fairness.

Mark Villar ranked 16th overall at 2.57, with 2.56 for trust, 2.54 for performance, and 2.61 for fairness.

Villar shared the 15.5 rank in trust and performance and shared the 16.5 rank in fairness.

Erwin Tulfo placed 17th overall at 2.56, posting 2.53 for trust, 2.52 for performance, and 2.61 for fairness.

Tulfo shared the 17.5 trust rank, ranked 17th in performance, and shared the 16.5 fairness rank.

Vicente “Tito” Sotto III also scored 2.56 overall and ranked 18th, with 2.53 for trust, 2.47 for performance, and 2.59 for fairness.

Sotto shared the 17.5 trust rank and ranked 18th in both performance and fairness.

Senior Deputy Majority Leader Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito ranked 19th overall at 2.51, with 2.42 for trust, 2.45 for performance, and 2.58 for fairness.

Ejercito shared the 19.5 trust rank and ranked 19th in performance and fairness.

Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri placed 20th overall at 2.48, with 2.42 for trust, 2.44 for performance, and 2.55 for fairness.

Zubiri shared the 19.5 trust rank and ranked 20th in performance and fairness.

Deputy Majority Leader Joel Villanueva ranked 21st and last overall at 2.44, with 2.36 for trust, 2.43 for performance, and 2.53 for fairness.

Villanueva also ranked 21st in each of the three individual measures.

The difference between Escudero’s 2.92 overall score and Villanueva’s 2.44 was only 0.48 point, prompting Pulso Intelligence to caution that differences of one or two hundredths should generally be treated as ties rather than meaningful ranking gaps.

Only nine of the 21 senator-judges scored above the 2.67 field average, while 12 were below it.

The top five, covering ranks 1–5, averaged 2.85 overall and ranged from 2.81 to 2.92.

The middle 11, covering ranks 6–16, averaged 2.66 and ranged from 2.57 to 2.80, a span of 0.23 point.

The bottom five, covering ranks 17–21, averaged 2.51 and ranged from 2.44 to 2.56.

The difference between the top-five and bottom-five averages was 0.34 point, with Pulso Intelligence describing the tiers as analytical groupings rather than survey categories.

Fairness received the highest average rating across the 21 senators at 2.71, compared with 2.66 for trust and 2.64 for performance.

Fairness was the highest or joint-highest component score for 20 of the 21 senators, with Escudero’s 2.95 performance rating exceeding his 2.92 fairness score, while Raffy Tulfo posted identical 2.81 scores for trust and fairness.

Fairness also showed the narrowest variation between the highest- and lowest-rated senators, with a 0.39-point range from Escudero’s 2.92 to Villanueva’s 2.53.

Trust had a 0.53-point range, from Escudero’s 2.89 to Villanueva’s 2.36.

Performance had a 0.52-point range, from Escudero’s 2.95 to Villanueva’s 2.43.

Pulso Intelligence said the rankings across trust, performance, and fairness were nearly identical, with Spearman rank-order correlations of at least ρ = 0.995 between every pair of measures.

The firm described the pattern as a possible “halo judgement,” meaning respondents appeared to be applying a broad impression of each senator across all three attributes instead of independently evaluating trust, performance, and fairness.

“The public isn’t grading these senators on three things. It’s grading them on one — and right now the men running the majority are at the bottom of that list,” said Abraham Eleazar D. Quintos, Chief Executive Officer, Pulso Intelligence Labs, Inc.

Pulso Intelligence highlighted the Senate majority leadership as the most pronounced grouping in the results, with Ejercito, Zubiri, and Villanueva occupying the 19th, 20th, and 21st overall positions, respectively.

The three majority-bloc leaders averaged 2.48 overall, while the two minority-bloc leaders — Alan Peter Cayetano at rank 3 and Imee Marcos at rank 9 — averaged 2.79.

The 16 senator-judges listed as holding no leadership post averaged 2.69, which was 0.22 point higher than the majority leadership’s average.

The report cautioned, however, that the two-member minority leadership and three-member majority leadership groups fall below Pulso Intelligence’s five-unit reporting threshold for subgroup analysis and should therefore be treated as directional rather than standalone findings.

Pulso Intelligence said the pattern did not correspond neatly to an ideological or partisan division because senators from opposing political camps appeared among both the top five and the middle ranks.

The firm instead proposed institutional visibility as a possible explanation, arguing that majority leaders may be more closely associated by respondents with the trial’s scheduling, rulings, and procedural direction.

Pulso Intelligence stressed that this interpretation was a hypothesis that the first wave could not directly test and said subsequent weekly waves could either support or reject it as proceedings developed.

The research firm said its first-wave results therefore pointed to a public that rated all 21 covered senator-judges above neutral but only modestly favorably, with the entire field compressed within 0.48 point.

For succeeding waves, the report recommended watching the majority leadership’s combined 2.48 average, treating the overall composite score as the primary indicator, reading ranks 6–16 as a single middle tier until movement is confirmed, and monitoring changes in the 17% neutral bloc on the impeachment question.

Pulso Intelligence said three sitting senators — Jinggoy Estrada, Rodante Marcoleta, and Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa — were not included in the first-wave scorecard.

The report said the dataset did not provide a reason for the three senators’ exclusion and cautioned that their absence should be noted when citing the bench average or tier groupings.

The survey was conducted through Pulso Intelligence’s verified online, mobile application-based respondent panel and used a base of 1,500 Filipino adults weighted for regional population and demographic differences.

Pulso Intelligence said it maintains a verified network of more than 1.6 million panel members across all 17 regions of the Philippines.

The firm said Pulso Intelligence Labs Inc. designed, conducted, and funded the survey and that no partisan group, candidate, political party, or commissioning interest influenced the survey or its reporting.

Pulso Intelligence said the scorecard measures public perception only and should not be interpreted as either a forecast of how any senator will vote or a legal assessment of Duterte’s impeachment case.

Figures in the impeachment sentiment findings may not total 100% because of rounding.