Noy still most popular president – Palace

MANILA, Philippines - Late in his six-year term, President Aquino, still has high ratings and remains the most popular chief executive in the post-Marcos era, Malacañang said yesterday.

Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office cited the similar results of pre-election surveys conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia showing a surge in the ratings of Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Manuel Roxas II after Aquino endorsed him as preferred successor.

“The significant improvement in Secretary Roxas’ ratings follows the same upward trend in the President’s satisfaction ratings, which are higher than what his predecessors attained in the late stage of their term,” Coloma said.

“Secretary Roxas posted the most significant increase of eight points (in the latest Pulse Asia survey), which indicates increasing support for him as the standard-bearer of daang matuwid (straight path) policy. This improvement was achieved within a month after President Aquino endorsed his candidacy.”

“It is reasonable to infer that our bosses (the citizens) believe in the President’s advocacy for continuity of daang matuwid,” he added.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte cited the result of an SWS survey showing a record-high 74 percent of 95 million Filipinos were satisfied with the way democracy works in the country, and compared it to the figures obtained during the term of Aquino’s predecessors, including his mother Corazon Aquino.