Despite her impeachment trial, the trust and performance rating of Vice President Sara Duterte is still higher than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a Pulse Asia Survey.

The survey conducted from September 17 to 24 and released on Thursday shows that 54 percent of respondents approve the performance of the vice president with a trust rating of 55 percent while near majorities or 49 percent are critical of the president’s work with 48 percent expressing distrust in him.

Compared from the last survey in July, Duterte's performance rating was down by two percentage points while that of Marcos went up by one percentage point.

Duterte's trust rating went down by three percentage points from the July survey while Marcos went up by one percentage point.

Duterte's impeachment trial at the Senate began on July 7 and adjourned on Oct. 13. It will resume on Nov. 9.

Data says that in September the "disapproval is the plurality opinion toward the work done by the President in the past quarter (49 percent). Approval for the same is more marked than indecision (30 percent versus 21 percent)."

"As for the Vice-President, appreciation remains the majority sentiment regarding her work (54 percent). More than a quarter of the adult population (27 percent) has a negative assessment of vice-presidential performance while almost a fifth (18 percent) is ambivalent on the matter," it added.

"Public opinion on the matter of trusting or distrusting the President and the Vice-President generally follows Filipinos’ assessment of their quarterly performance," the survey said.

"Nearly half of Filipino adults (48 percent) distrust the President. The rest of the adult population either trusts the latter (29 percent) or are unable to say if they trust or distrust him (22 percent)," the survey stated.

"In the case of the Vice-President, most adults trust her (55 percent). Distrust in the latter is more manifest than indecision about her trustworthiness (27 percent versus 19 percent)," it added. Robina Asido/PHS