Pulse Asia: 8 in 10 Filipinos favor Duterte admin’s COVID-19 response

MANILA, Philippines — Eight among 10 Filipinos have a “positive opinion” on the Duterte administration’s COVID-19 response, a Pulse Asia survey showed Thursday.

According to Pulse Asia’s September 2020 Ulat ng Bayan Survey, 84% of Filipinos approve of the government’s work to control the spread of the new coronavirus disease and provide assistance to those who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.

The government, on the other hand, earned single-digit disapproval ratings in terms of its initiatives to control the spread of the new coronavirus (6%) and help Filipinos who lost their sources of income due to the pandemic (7%). Meanwhile, 10% and 9% of those surveyed say they were undecided about the administration’s effort to curb the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and give aid to Filipinos affected by the public health crisis.

For 92% of the survey correspondents, President Rodrigo Duterte has “done well” in terms of preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the country, of which 62% said they “truly approve” of Duterte’s performance while 30% said they “somewhat approve” of the President’s actions.

The rest of the respondents either disapprove of the President’s performance (3%) or express indecision on the matter (5%).

Pulse Asia said the survey, conducted from September 14 to 20, is based on a sample of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above and has a ± 2.8% error margin at the 95% confidence level.

As of October 7, the Philippines has confirmed a total of 329,637 cases of COVID-19, including 49,989 active patients, 273,723 recoveries, and 5,925 fatalities.

KGA