MANILA, Philippines (Updated) — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Wednesday said that his lower approval ratings did not come as a surprise to him.
Marcos said that people are suffering amid high rice prices and that their lower rating for him was understandable.
“It’s not surprising. People are having a hard time. ‘Yung bigas, ‘yang hirap, bigas ito. Iba ang usapan ‘pag bigas. (The rice situation is difficult. It’s a different discussion when it comes to rice.) It’s different from anything else, any other agricultural product. I completely understand it. And that’s why we’re working very, very hard to make sure that this comes up again, not because of the survey,” Marcos said in an ambush interview in Taguig City.
Marcos emphasized that people cannot be blamed as they are grappling with poverty.
The President said that the results of the survey don’t matter. He said that what was important was to make sure that the public had something to eat.
READ: Marcos, Duterte suffer big drop in approval, trust scores
“That’s why we’re working very, very hard to make sure that this comes up again, not because of the survey. That’s not important to me. What’s important to me is that we make sure that people have enough to eat and that it is affordable to them,” said Marcos.
Both Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte received their first double-digit declines in approval and trust scores, according to Pulse Asia’s “Ulat ng Bayan” survey, amid rising 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.