President Benigno Aquino III approval rating up, says poll

The approval and trust ratings of President Benigno Aquino III’s performance rose last month from their levels in May, registering double-digit increases in Metro Manila, results of a Pulse Asia survey show.

Pulse Asia conducted the survey from Aug. 20 to Sept. 2, while the Senate and Malacañang were exposing corrupt practices like overpriced helicopters bought by the Philippine National Police and alleged electoral fraud by the previous administration.

Among socioeconomic classes, the poorest Class E gave the President the highest approval and trust ratings of 86 percent and 82 percent, respectively.

Class ABC gave Mr. Aquino approval and trust ratings of 68 percent and 64 percent, respectively, and Class D gave him both 74 percent, Pulse Asia said Thursday.

However, Pulse Asia said Mr. Aquino’s latest ratings did not vary significantly from his numbers in May because the “changes fall short of being significant given the survey’s overall error margin of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.”

The noncommissioned survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents nationwide.

The survey showed that 77 percent of respondents expressed approval of Mr. Aquino’s performance, up from 71 percent in May.

The percentage of those who disapproved of his performance dropped to 4 percent from 8 percent.

The survey found that 75 percent expressed their trust in the President, up from 71 percent in May.

Just 5 percent expressed distrust in the President (from 7 percent previously), while 19 percent said they could not say if they trust or distrust him (from 22 percent).

“Levels of indecision toward presidential performance and trustworthiness are generally constant across geographic areas and socioeconomic groupings,” Pulse Asia said.

Mr. Aquino earned majority approval ratings (from 72 percent to 81 percent) and trust ratings (from 73 percent to 82 percent) across all geographic areas.

Double-digit gains

He posted double-digit gains in his approval ratings in Metro Manila (72 percent in August from 57 percent in May) and the Visayas (80 percent from 68 percent).

Disapproval of his performance eased in Manila by 10 percentage points to 5 percent.

Mr. Aquino’s trust rating in Metro Manila went up 18 points to 74 percent, while his distrust rating declined 10 percentage points to 5 percent.

The President got single-digit disapproval and distrust ratings across all geographic areas and classes, except for the 11 percent distrust rating given by those in Class ABC.

His grades on 11 national issues were virtually unchanged, Pulse Asia said.

Respondents were made to grade the President’s performance on selected national concerns using a scale of 0 to 100, with 75 as the passing grade.

Issues

The issues included management of the economy, strengthening of political institutions, peace, delivery of basic services to those in need, law enforcement, poverty reduction, international relations, curbing graft and corruption, fighting criminality, environmental protection and population growth control.

Results showed Mr. Aquino’s average grades range from 75 or “barely passing” on poverty reduction to 80 or “good” on delivery of basic services to those in need.

On virtually all issues, the President scored a median grade of 80, which means half the respondents gave him a grade of 80 or lower, while the other half gave him a grade of 80 or higher.

Palace reaction

The only exception is his lower median grade of 75 for poverty reduction.

Reacting to the results of the survey, Malacañang said its efforts against corruption and poverty were being felt by Filipinos.

“(It) is an affirmation that more than a year into the current administration, the people’s faith in their leadership has not wavered, and has in fact become stronger,” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said of Pulse Asia’s latest finding.

“The message is getting across to the vast majority of Filipinos: President Aquino’s ratings are proof that his efforts toward curbing corruption and reducing poverty are truly being felt by Filipinos across all geographic and demographic strata,” Lacierda added.

At the time of the survey, news dominating the headlines included the congressional probe of the purchase of secondhand helicopters by the Philippine National Police; the medical condition of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo; the revival of fraud allegations in the 2004 and 2007 elections and Mr. Aquino’s meeting with the leadership of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Lawrence de Guzman, Inquirer Research; and Norman Bordadora

PERFORMANCE AND TRUST RATINGS OF PRESIDENT AQUINO

Aug. 20 to Sept. 2, 2011 (In Percent)

PERFORMANCE RATINGS           Approve                      Undecided      Disapprove

Total Philippines         77                    18                    4

Location

NCR                     72                    23                    5

Balance of Luzon        76                    19                    5

Visayas                        80                    18                    2

Mindanao                    81                    14                    5

Socioeconomic Class

Class ABC                  68                    25                    7

Class D                        74                    20                    5

Class E                        86                    12                    1

TRUST RATINGS                 Trust    Undecided      Distrust

Total Philippines                     75        19                    5

Location

NCR                                 74        21                    5

Balance of Luzon                    73        21                    6

Visayas                                    74        21                    5

Mindanao                                82        13                    5

Socioeconomic Class

Class ABC                              64        25                    11

Class D                                    74        20                    6

Class E                                    82        16                    2

Source: Pulse Asia