Noy approval, trust ratings still high

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino continued to enjoy high approval and trust ratings in the past three months, according to a recent Pulse Asia poll.

Pulse Asia’s November 2012 Ulat ng Bayan Survey found almost eight in 10 Filipinos or 78 percent expressing satisfaction with the performance of Aquino in the past quarter, while only six percent were dissatisfied. The remaining 16 percent were undecided.

The non-commissioned survey, conducted from Nov. 23 to 29, used face to face interviews of 1,200 representative adults 18 years and older.

Aquino obtained big majority approval ratings across geographic areas (74 percent to 83 percent) and socioeconomic classes (75 percent to 79 percent), Pulse Asia said.

“The President enjoys the same overall approval score in September and November 2012 while changes in his overall indecision and disapproval ratings are marginal (-2 and 2 percentage points, respectively),” it said. “There are also no notable changes in presidential performance ratings in the different geographic areas and socioeconomic groupings during this period,” it added. Meanwhile, the same survey found most Filipinos (80 percent) expressing their trust in the President.

“Trust is the majority sentiment in all geographic areas (78 percent to 85 percent) and socio-economic classes (79 percent to 83 percent),” the pollster said. On the other hand, only four percent of Filipinos distrust the President while 16 percent could not say if they trust or distrust him. “Filipinos’ opinions regarding presidential trustworthiness remain basically unchanged between September and November 2012, with only marginal changes occurring in President Aquino’s national trust and indecision scores (2 and -2 percentage points, respectively),” Pulse Asia said.

“Presidential ratings also remain constant across geographic areas and socio-economic classes,” it said. Pulse Asia said the national administration registered majority overall approval ratings on eight out of 11 key issues which it rated in November 2012.

It said small to sizable majority approval ratings are scored by the Aquino administration on the issues of fighting criminality (67 percent), fighting corruption (65 percent), enforcing the rule of law (64 percent), promoting peace (63 percent), protecting the environment (60 percent), defending the country’s territorial integrity (57 percent), increasing the pay of workers (56 percent) and creating more jobs (55 percent).

Moreover, approval is the plurality sentiment toward the efforts of the national administration to control population growth (47 percent) and reduce poverty (44 percent).

Almost the same approval and indecision ratings are recorded by the current dispensation on the issue of controlling inflation (40 percent versus 38 percent) – an issue considered as urgent by 51 percent of Filipinos.

“Between September and November 2012, the only significant improvements in the national administration’s approval ratings are recorded on the issues of defending the country’s territorial integrity (+9 percentage points) and stopping environmental degradation (10 percentage points),” Pulse Asia said.

“The other gains in approval are marginal in nature, given the survey’s overall error margin of +/- 3 percentage points,” it said.

The survey found that Filipinos are most critical of the administration’s initiatives to reduce poverty (20 percent) and control inflation (22 percent).

In contrast, single-digit disapproval ratings are obtained by the Aquino administration on the issues of enforcing the rule of law (seven percent), defending the country’s territorial integrity (seven percent), promoting peace (eight percent) and fighting criminality (nine percent).

Also, levels of indecision toward the work done by the national administration ranged from 24 percent on fighting criminality to 39 percent on controlling population growth.

“The only significant change in the administration’s indecision and disapproval ratings between September and November 2012 is the nine-percentage point decline in the level of ambivalence as regards its efforts to protect the environment,” Pulse Asia said.  

Palace vows to do more

Malacañang, for its part, vowed yesterday that the government will do more to address poverty alleviation in the country, following encouraging results of the latest Pulse Asia survey.

“We are encouraged by these survey results with the awareness that our continuing initiatives are producing results,” Edwin Lacierda, spokesman for Aquino, said in a press statement.  – With Delon Porcalla