MANILA – Six months before she is to step down from Malacanang, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo continues to suffer from poor performance and trust ratings from the 90 million Filipinos, according to just-released findings of a polling group.
Pulse Asia reported that in its latest survey, the President’s disapproval rating stood at 51 percent while her trust rating was at 52 percent, the highest since a year ago in both categories.
The survey, Pulse Asia said, was conducted October 22 to 30 and involved 1,800 respondents nationwide in Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon (outside Metro Manila), Visayas and Mindanao. It added the survey has a plus or minus two percent margin of error.
Pulse also pointed out the survey was conducted at a time when millions of Filipinos on the main island of Luzon were still trying to recover from the heavy damage, death and destruction wrought by typhoon “Ondoy†(international codename Ketsana) and “Pepeng†(international codename Parma).
It was also conducted when President Arroyo ordered a freeze on the prices of basic goods, like rice, milk, corn, coffee and cooking oil, as well as petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel, Pulse Asia said.
Pulse Asia said the President’s approval rating in October declined to 21 percent from 23 percent in August while her disapproval rating rose to 51 percent from 43 percent during the same period.
Her trust rating, meanwhile, showed a similar two percent decline, from 21 percent to 19 percent, while her distrust rating rose by 10 percent to 52 percent from the 42 percent recorded in August, Pulse Asia also reported.
“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, it said.
Pulse Asia noted the increase in the President’s disapproval and distrust ratings may be attributed to the decline in the number of those “ambivalent†about her performance (from 34 percent to in August to 27 percent in October) and trusworthiness (from 37 percent in August to 29 percent in October).
Based on social classes, Pulse Asia said President Arroyo scored the highest approval rating among the Class E respondents at 25 percent and 24 percent for trust rating.
In contrast, the President scored the lowest among the ABC classes at 19 percent and 14 percent on approval and trust ratings, respectively, it also said.
This developed as Malacanang, through deputy presidential spokesman Lorelei Fajardo, likewise continued to downplay the President’s poor approval and trust ratings, saying the Pulse Asia findings merely reflect the people’s opinions and do not accurately represent the sentiments of the 90 million Filipinos.
Fajardo argued that the ratings could have been higher if there was an objective assessment of her performance in the nine years that she has been in power.
Malacanang has always claimed that the President has accomplished a lot to ease the plight of the country’s poor with her pro-poor programmes that include doleouts, health care and educational support services.
However, Fajardo refused to respond to the observation of Pulse Asia that the President’s lack of popularity may hurt the candidates she would endorse in the May 2010 elections.
The ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats has officially nominated former defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro as its standard bearer in next year’s polls, with actor and TV host Edu Manzano as his running mate.
But in past and recent surveys of the presidential candidates conducted by Pulse Asia and another polling organization Social Weather Stations, Teodoro has not risen above the average four percent he has been receiving.
In these surveys, Teodoro’s second cousin, Senator Benigno “Noynoy†Aquino 3rd of the Liberal Party remained the overwhelming choice of the respondents to be their next president after the May 2010 polls.
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