Estrada: I'm not worried about popularity

Performance matters more than popularity.

This was President Estrada's reaction yesterday to his tumbling popularity amid mounting criticisms of his governance.

Pulse Asia Inc.'s March 15-29 poll showed that 49 percent of 1,200 respondents surveyed were satisfied with Mr. Estrada's job performance while 28 percent were not, for a net approval rating of 21 percent.

The figure is lower than that in Pulse Asia's December 9-20, 1999 poll where Mr. Estrada got a net rating of 28 percent, not 18 percent as reported in The STAR yesterday.

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno apologized for erroneously saying that Mr. Estrada's 21 percent net approval rating was an improvement over his previous rating of "18 percent."

Diokno also gave the same erroneous figures when he briefed the President and the crisis committee about the survey results during their weekly breakfast meeting at Malacañang yesterday.

Reached by The STAR at his office, Diokno said, "It was an honest mistake on my part, when I misread the 28 percent for 18 percent."

Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's net approval rating also fell to 69 percent from 78 percent in the December poll. In the latest survey, 77 percent were satisfied with her performance while eight percent were not.

Mr. Estrada put on a brave face yesterday as he launched a nutrition project near the former Smokey Mountain dump in Tondo.

"I'm not worried about my popularity. I'm more concerned about my performance," the President told reporters. "I don't worry about the criticisms. My only concern is to implement projects for the benefit of the people."

Mr. Estrada was accompanied by First Lady Luisa Ejercito, Health Secretary Alfredo Romualdez and Manila Mayor Lito Atienza.

The President endeared himself to local residents when he ordered his bodyguards to remove barricades preventing the crowd from getting too near the stage where he was addressing them.

"Can we remove that barricade? Remove it. Why do we seem to be afraid of the people? Barangay tanod, remove the barricade," Mr. Estrada said.

The crowd chanted "Erap, Erap" as they surged close to the stage, with a visibly pleased President waving to them.

Mr. Estrada said his 21-month-old administration has been unable to deliver on its promises to the poor because of the national debt he inherited from the Ramos administration.

"Kaya mga kababayan, inuulit ko, sa panahon ngayon na halos isang taon at kalahati pa lamang ako, alam n'yo nagdaan ang Southeast Asian financial crisis, marami po tayong minanang problema. Bangkarote po ang kabang bayan. Kaya hindi ko agad maibigay ang lahat ng pangangailangan ng ating mamamayan. Ngunit ngayon po ay unti-unti na tayong nakaka-recover, at unti-unti na nating maibibigay ang lahat na mga pangangailangan ng ating kababayan (So, my fellow Filipinos, I repeat, after one and a half years in office, you know that we went through the Southeast Asian financial crisis, we inherited a lot of problems. The country's coffers are bankrupt. That's why I've been unable to provide our people's needs. But now that we are slowly recovering, we will be able to provide our people's needs little by little)," the President assured them.

He explained that the government needed money to implement its pro-poor projects and programs such as low-cost housing and food security.

"I have only 1,504 days to go as your President so I'm doing as soon as possible all the things I must do....Para makarami akong magawa para sa ating mga kababayan. (So I will be able to achieve a lot.) Si Erap po, hangang mamamatay, ay laging para sa kapakanan ng mahihirap (Until his death, Erap will always be for the welfare of the poor)," Mr. Estrada said.

Impressing on the local folk that he was one of them, the President said he was not only born in Tondo 62 years ago, but the character he portrayed in his first movie starring role was a Tondo lowlife named Asiong Salonga.

"I became famous because of Tondo. For that, I will never forget you," he said.

At Malacañang Presidential Spokesman Fernando Barican defended his boss's lower popularity rating, saying Estrada pollwatchers have been misreading the surveys.

He said people should look at the overall approval rating instead of the net approval rating. Mr. Estrada's 49 percent approval rating is four percentage points lower than that in the previous Pulse Asia opinion survey.

Despite that, Barican said, the 49 percent rating was "comparable" with the current ratings of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US presidential candidates Texas Gov. George Bush Jr. and Vice President Al Gore.

It is only here in the Philippines, Barican continued, that the net approval rating is used as the gauge in opinion surveys.

"The net figures tend to be confusing and only the Philippines, in the whole world, uses this system of net, right minus wrong," Barican said.

"Let me also note that President Estrada was elected with 40 percent of the vote. And so a 49 percent approval rating at this time is still higher than even the rating that the President received, if you will, during the election," he said.

Explaining further, Barican said the Pulse Asia poll differed in the way it asked its respondents. Pulse Asia asked its respondents about their "approval" rating, while the Social Weather Stations Inc. (SWS), which also conducts surveys on the President, measured the people's "satisfaction" on Mr. Estrada's performance.

Mr. Estrada got a five percent performance rating in the SWS's first quarter polls.

"And those are two different things. You can approve of an administration even if you are currently somewhat dissatisfied during the rating period because it does not meet your expectations for that period," Barican said.

"And that's why the approval ratings are always considerably higher than the dissatisfaction ratings because two different questions are asked in two different kinds of polls. The trouble is, people get confused."

Meanwhile, in the Senate, incoming Senate Majority Leader Francisco Tatad declared the three-day protest campaign by the so-called "silent protest movement" a failure. The movement spearheaded a "noise barrage" which drew a lukewarm response.

"Despite the political noise it generated in media, the assault on the presidency has failed to gather enough steam," he said in a statement. "The storm is over. The assault on the presidency has failed, and President Estrada is safely in control."

To boost support for the President, Mr. Estrada's spiritual adviser El Shaddai leader Mike Velarde has vowed to continue holding prayer rallies every Saturday.

He told his huge crowd of followers during last Saturday's rally at Rizal Park: "God is with President Estrada. God will help him because He has chosen him to lead our country." - With Efren Danao, AFP