First Posted 06:16:00 11/24/2009
Filed Under: Governance, Opinion surveys, Inquirer Politics, Eleksyon 2010
MANILA, Philippines—More than half of Filipinos don’t trust President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and disapprove of her performance with less than six months left in her presidency, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey released Monday.In the Ulat ng Bayan survey of Pulse Asia conducted on Oct. 22-30, 51 percent were critical of Ms Arroyo’s performance while 52 percent did not trust her, Ronald Holmes, head of the independent pollster, said.
“Every time an administration is about to exit, we expect a drop in their approval and trust ratings,” Holmes said, adding that Ms Arroyo’s lack of popularity may hurt the candidates she would endorse in next May’s national and local elections.
About 48 million Filipinos are expected to elect a president, vice president, nearly 300 lawmakers for the two houses of Congress, and more than 17,000 local government officials.
Gibo’s poor ratings
Ms Arroyo’s chosen successor, former Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, has registered poorly in surveys compared to two opposition senators—Benigno “Noynoy” III Aquino and Manuel Villar.
Even former President Joseph Estrada, whose eligibility as a presidential candidate remains under a cloud after he was convicted of plunder and later pardoned, has better ratings than the administration standard-bearer.
Aftermath
Holmes said President Arroyo’s performance rating suffered in the survey of 1,800 respondents nationwide because it was done just a few weeks after the country was battered by successive typhoons.
Her approval rating in October declined to 21 percent from 23 percent in August while her disapproval rating rose to 51 from 43 during the same period.
Her trust rating showed a similar 2 percentage points decline, from 21 percent to 19 percent, while her distrust rating rose by 10 percentage points from 42 percent in August.
“The last time the president’s disapproval and distrust ratings went above the 50 percent level was in 2005, right after she was linked to allegations of election fraud in the 2004 polls,” Holmes said. It slightly improved but is starting to fall off again.
Palace reaction
Malacañang spokesperson Gary Olivar shrugged off the President’s poor ratings, saying that she should be measured based on her work ethic and accomplishments.
“These surveys are opinion-based and we don’t think it represents a significant number of Filipinos,” Olivar said. ‘‘The President has been focused on just delivering basic social services for the poorest of the poor. That’s more important for the President than her popularity.”
The nationwide survey had an error margin of plus or minus 2 percent at the 95 percent confidence level. Pulse Asia said no party singularly commissioned the survey.
The survey said 52 percent of the respondents had little or no trust in Ms Arroyo, 19 percent had much trust, and 29 percent were undecided.
Decline in ambivalence
At the same time, 51 percent disapproved of her performance in the three months preceding the survey, 21 percent approved, and 27 percent were undecided.
Pulse Asia, however, noted that the increase in presidential disapproval and distrust ratings may be attributed to the decline of those who were ambivalent about the President’s performance (from 34 percent in August to 27 percent) and trustworthiness (from 37 percent to 29 percent).
The highest increase in distrust came from the Visayas at 17 percentage points (from 36 percent in August to 53 percent). Distrust among those in the balance of Luzon significantly increased by 12 percentage points (from 40 percent to 52 percent).
Noli slips, too
The performance of other top government officials was rated in the same Pulse Asia survey.
Vice President Noli de Castro got a 43 percent approval rating and 27 percent disapproval rating, while 29 percent were unsure of his performance. While he remained to have the highest overall approval rating among the top government officials in the survey, his approval rating slipped by 12 percentage points from the August survey (from 55 to 43 percent), Pulse Asia noted.
The approval ratings of three other ranking officials—Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, House Speaker Prospero Nograles and Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno—also all slipped. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research with a report from Reuters
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091124-238015/52-of-Filipinos-distrust-Arroyosurvey
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