FILE PHOTO: Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Sara Duterte-Carpio (Photo from the Facebook page of Bongbong Marcos)
Both President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte suffered their first double-digit declines in approval and trust ratings, according to Pulse Asia’s “Ulat ng Bayan” survey, amid rocketing consumer prices across the country.
The nationwide survey, conducted from Sept. 10 to Sept. 14, showed that the President’s approval rating fell by 15 percentage points, from 80 percent in June to 65 percent in September.
Marcos’ trust rating went down by 14 points, from 85 percent to 71 percent, for the same period.
Duterte, on the other hand, experienced a drop of 11 points in her approval score for the same period, from 84 percent to 73 percent, and a decline of 12 percentage points in trust rating, from 87 percent to 75 percent.
It was the first time for the approval and trust scores of the country’s top two leaders to fall by two digits since the new administration started in June last year.
‘Unfulfilled promise’
The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult respondents and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.8 percentage points for national estimates and plus-or-minus 5.7 points for each geographic area.
“Continuing increase in prices of basic commodities and services and unfulfilled promise of reducing these” likely caused the “significant” drop in the approval ratings, said Ronald Holmes, president of Pulse Asia.
The Presidential Communications Office and the Office of the Vice President did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Marcos, also the concurrent agriculture secretary, has struggled to keep inflation in check, with the pace of price increases still outside the government’s 2 percent to 4 percent target despite interventions like food tariff cuts.
The annual rate of inflation was 6.6 percent at the end of August.
Last month, the President imposed price ceilings for rice.
Results of the Pulse survey showed that Marcos’ approval rating declined by 14 to 15 percentage points in all areas.
Marcos’ trust rating also declined the most in Luzon outside of Metro Manila by 20 points (from 88 percent to 68 percent) and by 21 points among Class E (from 83 percent to 62 percent) and among Class ABC (from 77 percent to 56 percent).
Duterte’s September approval rating saw the biggest decline in Metro Manila (from 75 percent to 63 percent), and among Class ABC (from 72 percent to 54 percent).
Other top officials
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri scored a 50 percent approval rating in September from 56 percent in June, and a 49 percent trust rating from 57 percent, for the same period.
Speaker Martin Romualdez also saw a double-digit decline in his approval rating, from 52 percent to 41 percent, and in his trust rating, from 54 percent to 38 percent.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo’s approval rating dropped from 44 percent to 34 percent, and his trust rating from 43 percent to 33 percent.