Aquino suffers biggest rating drop in Pulse Asia, SWS polls

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) — President Benigno Aquino III suffered the largest decline in his ratings which are now on their lowest levels, according to the latest surveys of both Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Pulse Asia said while Aquino continues to enjoy the approval and trust of majority of Filipinos, he received a significant drop in his national ratings from March to June 2014.

According to the survey results released on Monday, Aquino's performance rating decreased from 70 percent to 56 percent while his trust rating fell from 69 percent to 53 percent.

Pulse Asia Research Director Ana Maria Tabunda noted that these are Aquino's lowest marks in his four years in office.

"It would be his largest decline in both approval and trust (ratings) and it's also his lowest performance and trust ratings thus far," Tabunda told ANC in a phone-patch interview.

Amid the various controversies hounding his administration, the President experienced significant drop in his approval ratings in the rest of Luzon (-14 percentage points), Mindanao (-19 percentage points) and Classes D and E (-15 and -12 percentage points, respectively).

As for presidential trust scores, they decreased markedly in Mindanao (-15 percentage points), Metro Manila (-17 percentage points), the rest of Luzon (-19 percentage points) and all socio-economic groupings (-14 to -20 percentage points).

Pulse Asia also noted that less than half of the people in Metro Manila have positive views on Aquino's performance and trustworthiness (46 percent and 40 percent, respectively).

Non-majority approval and trust ratings were also recorded in Class ABC (48 percent and 42 percent, respectively).

The Pulse Asia survey was conducted from June 24 to July 2, 2014. The polling firm said various issues preoccupied Filipinos immediately before and during the conduct of the field interviews for this survey.

These issues include the filing of plunder charges before the Sandiganbayan against Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla in connection with the pork barrel scam and the eventual surrender and detention of Estrada and Revilla.

Also among the issues is the decision issued by the Supreme Court (SC) declaring several acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional.

But Pulse Asia's Tabunda said the pork barrel scam "might have a heavier weight" than the DAP issue since the high court ruling was only released on July 2, the last day when the survey interviews were conducted.

SWS: Satisfaction with PNoy down by 20 points

Meanwhile, the results of the latest SWS survey also showed that Aquino's net satisfaction rating dropped to its lowest point last June.

Based on the survey results also published on Monday, Aquino's net satisfaction rating fell to a "moderate" +25, down from the "good" +45 in March.

Like in the Pulse Asia poll, this is Aquino's largest rating decline in an SWS survey. It is also his lowest score since his took office in 2010 and the first time that his ranking fell to the "moderate."

According to the SWS survey, 66 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with Aquino's performance while 30 percent said otherwise.

Aquino's net satisfaction rating decreased across all regions and among economic classes. The biggest drop was recorded in Metro Manila (from +33 to +6) and in Class D and E (from +45 and +44, respectively, to +22 and +31).

Despite the decrease in the President's ratings, 50 percent of the respondents believe that it is still "too early to tell" whether Aquino is a successful or an unsuccessful chief executive.

The number of those who think that Aquino will be successful, however, decreased from 40 percent to 29 percent while those who believe that he will be unsuccessful rose from 13 percent to 21 percent.