Filipino adults most often name Senators Alan Peter Cayetano, Robin Padilla, and Raffy Tulfo as the senator-judges they trust to be fair and impartial during Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, according to the August 2026 issue of The National Momentum Survey.
But even when they are among the most trusted, Cayetano and Padilla also rank among the senator-judges most often distrusted, revealing how trust in relation to the officials mandated to try the vice president is a polarizing issue.
The non-commissioned survey, conducted from August 18 to 23, found that more than a quarter of Filipino adults name Cayetano (28.4%) as one of the senators they trust to abide by their oath as senator-judges in the impeachment trial.
He is closely followed by Padilla, cited by 23.8% of Filipino adults, and Raffy Tulfo, mentioned by 20.7%. Senators Bam Aquino (17.6%) and Risa Hontiveros (15.8%) are also among the leading names Filipino adults cite when asked which senator-judges they trust to be fair and impartial.
About 1 in 10 Filipino adults remain undecided, with 8.7% saying they are unsure or refuse to answer. Another 4.8% say they do not trust any of the 24 senators listed.
The survey also asked respondents separately which senator-judges they do not trust to be fair and impartial, revealing that trust and distrust are not mutually exclusive.
In Padilla’s case, he also receives the highest share of distrust mentions, with 16.5% of Filipino adults saying they do not trust him to be fair and impartial.
Hontiveros (13.4%) and Cayetano (12.3%) are also examples of senator-judges receiving relatively high shares of distrust mentions despite being among the senator-judges most often cited as trusted. The overlap shows that perceptions of the same senator-judges can vary sharply among Filipinos.
Senators Bato Dela Rosa and Jinggoy Estrada are also among the most distrusted. Both have also been absent from the impeachment trial, with Dela Rosa in hiding over an arrest warrant and Estrada detained over plunder charges.
Respondents were specifically asked to name up to three senators they trust to be fair and impartial during the impeachment trial, and separately, up to three senators they distrust.
Understanding the data. The findings should not be read as a full trust ranking of all 24 senators. Since respondents could name only up to three senator-judges they trust or distrust to be fair and impartial, the share of mentions reflects how often each senator appeared among respondents’ top choices, not the degree of trust in each senator.
In other words, a higher share of mentions does not necessarily indicate greater trust or distrust, just as a lower share does not necessarily indicate lesser trust or distrust. The two concepts were asked separately, so not naming a senator as one of the most trusted does not automatically mean a respondent distrusts that senator, and vice versa.
Gen Z more likely to trust Aquino, Hontiveros
Trust patterns are generally similar across generations, except for Gen Z Filipinos, who name opposition senator-judges — like Aquino and Hontiveros — more often than other generations.
Aquino is the most frequently cited senator-judge among Gen Z respondents, with 27.5% saying they trust him to be fair and impartial. He is also mentioned by 15.6% of Millennials and 12.3% of Gen X respondents, placing him among the six most frequently cited senator-judges in three of the four generations.
Hontiveros is also the third most cited senator-judge by Gen Zs, with 23% mentioning her,mcompared with fewer than 15% in each of the older generational groups.
The most consistent across generations, however, are Cayetano, Raffy Tulfo, and Padilla, who appear among the six most frequently cited senator-judges in every age group as those trusted to be fair and impartial.
Cayetano consistently draws the highest share of mentions among older generations, leading among Gen X (28%), Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation (24.6%), while tying with Padilla among Millennials (33.2%).
Sen. Chiz Escudero, the Senate impeachment court’s presiding officer, is also one of the most frequently cited senator-judges trusted to be fair and impartial, mentioned by 18.1% of Millennials and 14.7% of Gen X respondents.
On the other hand, distrust in senator-judges is less consistent, with no single senator-judge dominating across generations.
Padilla ranks among the most distrusted senator-judges among Gen Zs, Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation, while being the second-most cited among Gen X.
Among Millennials, Sen. Tito Sotto receives the highest share of distrust mentions at 21.6%, followed by Hontiveros at 18.9%. For Gen X Filipinos, Dela Rosa (17.2%) is the most often named senator they distrust to be fair and impartial at the trial.
Like Padilla, Cayetano also draws relatively high distrust mentions across several generations, including 12.6% among Gen Zs and 10.8% among Gen X. His highest share comes from Baby Boomers and the Silent Generation at 14.8%.
Fragmented trust and distrust across regions, factions
Unlike the generational breakdown, trust and distrust in senator-judges highly vary by region, without a consistent trend across areas.
For the most trusted senator-judges, Raffy Tulfo leads in Metro Manila (26.6%), Cayetano inthe Rest of Luzon (25.1%) and Mindanao (42.6%), while Aquino and Cayetano are tied in Visayas (25.9%).
Mindanao, however, is particularly unique, with Cayetano (42.6%) and Padilla (36.9%) receiving notably higher mentions of trust among residents in the region compared to other areas.
Distrust by region shows Lacson with the highest mentions in Metro Manila (22.8%), Dela Rosa in the Rest of Luzon (20.4%), Padilla in Visayas (21%), while Raffy Tulfo, Sotto, andErwin Tulfo are nearly tied as the most distrusted in Mindanao (25%).
A similar variation appears along partisan lines, although the divisions are more pronounced.
Pro-Duterte Filipinos are more likely to name Duterte-aligned senator-judges such as Cayetano (48.4%) and Padilla (35.7%) as those they trust to be fair and impartial.
Senators associated with the administration or opposition, meanwhile, receive higher shares of distrust mentions from Pro-Duterte respondents.
For example, Hontiveros is the most frequently cited among Pro-Duterte respondents (27.8%) when asked about the senators they did not trust, followed by Tito Sotto at 26.1% and the Tulfo brothers at around 22% each.
The reverse appears among Pro-Marcos and Pro-Opposition Filipinos, where Duterte-aligned senators receive higher shares of distrust and senators seen as closer to their own factions are more likely to be named as trusted.
Case in point: 47.2% of Pro-Opposition respondents name Aquino as one of the senator-judges they trust to be fair and impartial, followed by Hontiveros (42.8%), and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan (26.5%).
For Pro-Marcos Filipinos, the Tulfo brothers and Sen. Ping Lacson are among the senator-judges they are more likely to trust in the impeachment trial, with one notable exception: 28.7% also say they trust Cayetano.
Independents are clearly mixed, with Raffy Tulfo leading among the trusted senator-judges (25.4%) and Dela Rosa leading among the distrusted senator-judges (17.8%).
Conducted from August 18 to 23, the National Momentum Survey was carried out through face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,487 Filipino adults. It has a national margin of error of ±2.5 percentage points at a 95% confidence level.
Subnational margins of error are ±6.9% for the National Capital Region, ±3.8% for the Rest of Luzon (North, South, and Central Luzon), ±5.8% for Visayas, and ±5.5% for Mindanao — all at a 95% confidence level.
