President Rodrigo Duterte is still the most trusted government official in the Philippines based on a survey of the Pulse Asia Research.
Pulse Asia reported on July 17 that Duterte got an 85 percent approval and trust rating in the survey conducted from June 24 to 30.
Only three percent of the 1,200 survey respondents said they disapprove of Duterte’s performance as chief executive, 4 percent claimed to have small or no trust in him while 11 percent were undecided.
Earlier in July, Duterte also got a new personal record-high satisfaction rating of 80 percent despite the boat ramming incident near Recto Bank in June, according to the survey of Social Weather Stations.
Malacañang flaunted Duterte’s latest trust and approval ratings, which showed that 8 out of 10 Filipinos believe the chief executive.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte’s 85 percent rating based on a Pulse Asia survey, is “not surprising” as the President is a “transparent” leader.
“Not surprising. It keeps on increasing, simply because the President is a very transparent leader, his political will shows in every measure or step he has undertaken; it shows how sincere he is, and the people are satisfied with his method of governance,” he said during a Palace briefing.
The recent survey results also show that criticism against the President over his drug war and controversial pronouncements on the West Philippine Sea “are all wrong,” Panelo said.
He added that the Palace is confident that the President could maintain his popularity among Filipinos.
Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo, meanwhile, obtained a 55 percent approval rating and 52 percent trust rating; 26 percent claimed they have small or no trust in her while 24 percent disapproved of her performance as vice president.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III also enjoyed high ratings in the latest survey, garnering 77 percent approval rating and 73 percent trust rating.
Pulse Asia noted that approval is the predominant opinion as regards the work of President Duterte and Senate President Sotto across geographic areas. Vice-President Robredo enjoys majority approval in most geographic areas and socio-economic groupings, with only Metro Manilans and those in Class ABC withholding majority scores from her.
On the other hand, former House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo got 26 percent approval rating and 22 percent trust rating while Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin obtained 41 percent approval rating and 35 percent trust rating.
Among the key issues that dominated headlines during the survey period were the reported ramming of a Filipino fishing vessel in Recto Bank; the explosion in Indanan, Sulu; the public school teachers’ plea for pay hike; fraud allegations in the May 2019 polls; the call made by 11 United Nations experts for the conduct of a probe on the human rights situation in the Philippines; deportation from Hong Kong of former DFA Secretary Albert del Rosario and Philhealth “ghost” dialysis claims.
Pulse Asia said it has 95 percent confidence level in the survey results with an error margin of +/-2.8 percent.
Duterte was swept to power in May 2016 by 16 million votes, becoming the first Mindanaoan President and the first to become the country’s highest-ranking official straight from mayoralty.
“For every issue that is thrown at him with such negative force, the detractors and the opposition keep saying the rating will go down. But the more they say that, the more it goes up. If that is not a powerful language to them, I don’t know what is not,” Panelo said.
Duterte recorded an 85 percent approval rating in the Pulse Asia survey, 2 points below the 87 percent he received in March according to a June Pulse Asia survey.
The same survey also showed that Duterte’s trust rating remained unchanged at 85 percent.