(CNN Philippines) — The most talked about headlines in the country for the first three months of the year were Pope Francis’ visit, the Mamasapano clash and the showdown between Pacquiao and Mayweather.
According to the results a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Thursday (April 30), eight out of ten people (79%) closely followed the five-day historic papal visit on January 15-19.
Barely a week after the Pope left, the infamous Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao erupted on January 25 and the story was closely monitored by 7 out of 10 Filipinos (70%)
Landing on the third spot (69%) — and the only sports and non-hard news event on the list — was the highly-anticipated slugfest between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 3 PHT.
It would be interesting to note that unlike the two top news events, which both happened in January, the “megafight” was only announced on February 21 by Mayweather on the social networking site Shots.
The fourth most followed news event (66%), was the investigation by the Senate and House of Representatives on the Mamasapano clash with killed 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF).
The pork barrel trials involving Janet Lim-Napoles landed fifth place (61%) as the most talked about issue among Pinoys.
Completing the Top 10 list are:
6. Calls for the resignation of Pres. Benigno Aquino III (58%)
7. Maguindanao Massacre trial (53%)
8-9. West Philippine Sea territorial row with China and Senate probe into the alleged overprice Makati City Hall Building II (both with 51%).
10. The murder case against US Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton for the death of Filipino transgender woman Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude (47%),
The First Quarter 2015 SWS survey was taken from March 20-23.
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