61% of Pinoys now accept GMA — SWS

The legitimacy of the Arroyo administration is now accepted by 61 percent of Filipinos nationwide and 38 percent believe that the quality of life will improve over the next 12 months.

This was the result of the latest national survey conducted by television network ABS-CBN and the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from Feb. 2-7 with 1,200 respondents from all levels of society.

The survey also showed that more people (47 percent) distrust deposed Pre-sident Joseph Estrada, with his trust rating plunging from 11 percent on Jan. 6-9 to negative 12 percent in the latest survey.

More people also believe that President Arroyo will be a better president than the disgraced Estrada, with 43 percent saying that she will be an improvement and only six percent saying she will be worse.

Mrs. Arroyo’s trust rating also surged with 52 percent of respondents saying they trusted her while only 18 percent distrust her. Her trust rating reversed from negative 11 in Jan. 6-9 to positive 34 in the last survey.

Contrary to claims that only the rich support Mrs. Arroyo, the survey showed that Mrs. Arroyo’s presidency was accepted by a 58 percent majority in the ABC, or middle-to-upper classes; 64 percent in the D, or mass, class; and 54 percent in the E, or poor, class.

She is accepted as president by 60 percent in Metro Manila and 60 percent in Luzon: 71 percent in the Visayas and 55 percent in Mindanao, the survey showed.

Most respondents said Mrs. Arroyo’s presidency was based on people power, 23 percent on the Supreme Court declaration of vacancy in the presidency and only 18 percent on the military and police defection.

Only nine percent said that Mrs. Arroyo has no right to the presidency.

The survey also showed a national consensus on the validity of the people power uprising with 71 percent saying the peaceful revolt was the true sentiment of the nakararami (majority) while 28 percent said iilan lamang (just a few).

Two out of three respondents also believed that Estrada should be prosecuted and 87 percent of these number want Estrada to testify in court, the survey showed.

Aside from the reversal of Mrs. Arroyo’s approval rating and the validity of people power, the survey also showed that Filipinos are now generally optimistic of better times.

The survey showed that 38 percent of respondents expect their personal quality of life to improve over the next 12 months while only 14 expect it to worsen.

Net personal optimism thus improved to positive 24 from only positive four in January and zero in December. Net personal optimism is at its highest level since July 1998, or shortly after the inauguration of the Estrada administration, the survey showed.

More Filipinos also expect the economy to get better over the next 12 months with 36 percent saying it will get better while 18 percent expect an economic downturn, the survey showed.

Last December, the survey said, only 14 percent of respondents were optimistic while 44 percent were pessimistic on the country’s economic prospects.