PULSEBEAT: Here is another measure of your and media’s perspective – some call it bias – in assessing public perception of the performance of President Noynoy Aquino in the last three months.

Basis is the March 2011 “Ulat ng Bayan” survey of Pulse Asia on presidential performance and trust ratings, and the national administration’s performance ratings.

The survey fieldwork was conducted February 24 to March 6 nationwide using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults. (We’re assuming you believe in opinion surveys. Many people don’t.)

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CHOOSE YOUR WILD: Compare the play given the survey findings by the mainstream newspapers, radio-TV networks and opinion-writers. Check which of the survey findings listed below they have chosen to emphasize:

* The dominant sentiment toward President Aquino is one of appreciation for his work (74 percent) and trust in him (75 percent). The President has only a 7 percent disapproval rating and 6 percent distrust rating nationwide.

* Between the previous survey in October 2010 and March 2011, the President’s approval and trust ratings fell by 5 percentage points, while his disapproval and distrust ratings rose by 4 percentage points.

* The Aquino administration scored majority approval ratings on only three (out of 11) national issues – fighting graft and corruption (56 percent), fighting criminality (54 percent) and improving the peace situation (53 percent).

* Filipinos are most critical of the administration’s initiatives to stabilize prices of basic commodities (32 percent) and to reduce poverty (26 percent).

* Appreciation for the administration’s work on six issues had eased: controlling population growth (-11 percentage points), creating more jobs (-11 pp), enforcing the law equally (-9 pp), fighting criminality (-8 pp), increasing workers’ pay (-8 pp) and controlling inflation (-8 pp).

Depending on one’s opinion, bias or his partisan color, one can pick any of the above findings, lead off with it, and play it up. Which is your preferred point of emphasis?

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SLOW DRAG: It is gratifying that Justice Secretary Leila de Lima has assigned new prosecutors, headed by Undersecretary Francisco Baraan III, to the Ampatuan multiple murder case. Baraan made his first court appearance in the last hearing on Wednesday.

The case was brought to court in January 2010, after the gruesome political violence that shocked the country on Nov. 23, 2009, in Ampatuan town, Maguindanao. But over the past 14 months the prosecution has presented only 18 witnesses.

The pace seems to be excruciatingly slow, but it becomes understandable when we consider that there were 57 identified victims and 197 respondents in the case, represented by lawyers, each of whom has a right to be heard.

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WEAK LINK: Hearings also had to be suspended so Judge Jocelyn Solis-Reyes of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court could attend to voluminous pleadings and establish a better secured venue.

Baraan admitted there have also been personality clashes among the public and private prosecutors – prompting De Lima to accede to a request to assign new DoJ lawyers to the case. But that is not to say that previous DOJ lawyers were remiss in their duties.

To date, the hearings are still focused on bail for some of the accused while some respondents have not even been arraigned.

It is scary enough to speculate how long the trial will take, but it is even scarier to consider the possibility that the case could collapse if a weak link somewhere fails – notwithstanding the evidence against the Ampatuans accused of masterminding the bloodbath.

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AGRA ACTIONS: Relatives of the victims have expressed fear that the court may not even get the chance to weigh the evidence because the prosecution allegedly botched the case at the investigation stage.

They add that the matter might just be decided on a question of law, at the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court, involving former Muslim Mindanao Gov. Zaldy Ampatuan who was initially excluded – but later included — by then acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra from the list of accused.

Ampatuan was arrested in November 2009 on claims that he was at a family meeting in Sharif Aguak, Maguindanao, where the massacre was allegedly planned. He later presented evidence that he was in Davao City at the time the witness said he was in Sharif Aguak.

Agra said that that was the basis of his first resolution excluding Ampatuan. Another witness later testified, however, that Ampatuan was indeed in Sharif Aguak during the family gathering but arrived late. Agra said the second testimony was the basis of his reversal.

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NEW EVIDENCE: It turned out that Agra issued the reversal based on new evidence, which is not allowed by the rules. His resolution was issued without giving Ampatuan the chance to refute the new evidence.

The victims’ relatives now fear that this point may be made into an excuse to exonerate Ampatuan.

The former governor has asked the Court of Appeals to exclude him as an accused because, he said, Agra gravely abused his discretion when he admitted the new evidence without giving him a chance to challenge it.

Is the issue now a question of procedure, rather than the merits of the case or evidence? Agra said that the respondents can dispute the new evidence in a trial anyway, but this appears to show disdain for the rights of the complainants.

Even if the appellate court finds that Agra had abused his discretion, that does not automatically mean exoneration for Ampatuan, because the court can simply order the DoJ to conduct another preliminary investigation on the new evidence.

That should not be a problem for the new prosecution team since the case remains “solid,” according to Baraan, because the strength of evidence should be the primary basis of the ultimate resolution of the case.