Palace welcomes Duterte’s high performance rating, twits Robredo for lagging behind

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Monday welcomed President Rodrigo Duterte’s high approval and trust ratings amid the coronavirus pandemic, and at the same time took a swipe at Vice President Leni Robredo who lagged in the survey score.

In a Pulse Asia survey released Monday, Duterte lorded over other top five government officials in terms of performance and trust ratings with 91% on both categories.

Meanwhile, Robredo, the opposition leader, ranked 4th in both categories with 57% approval ratings and 50% trust ratings.

READ: 9 out of 10 Filipinos approve of Duterte’s performance amid pandemic — Pulse Asia

The survey, according to Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, showed that Filipinos are not appreciative of the opposition stalwart’s “politicking” in light of the health crisis.

“Naku Madam VP (Vice President), mukhang tama ang aking sinabi, mukhang ayaw po ata ng Pilipino ang namumulitika sa panahon ng pandemya,” Roque said in a televised press briefing.

(Madam Vice President, it seems that what I said is right, it looks like Filipinos do not want politicking during this pandemic.)

“Subukan po nating itigil ang pamumulitika, baka po tumaas ng mas mataas sa 50% ang trust ratings at mas mataas pa po sa 57% ang performance ratings,” he added.

(Try to stop politicking, maybe your trust rating will rise higher than 50% and your performance rating will be more than 57%.)

Among the issues during the survey period include the corruption scandal within the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., claims of irregularities in the procurement of COVID-19 testing kits, the public backlash against the fake white sand in Manila Bay, the nixing of the move by the Department of Transportation to reduce the physical distancing in public transport and Duterte’s decision to pardon US soldier Joseph Scott Pemberton.

JE