Pulse: Aquino gov’t anti-corrupt drive score improves amid top officials’ scandals

MANILA, Philippines―Despite allegations hounding the government’s top officials, slightly more Filipinos still gave the Aquino administration a passing grade in its fight against corruption, a Pulse Asia survey released Thursday revealed.

According to the survey which was conducted from September 8-15, 2014, the Aquino government got a 43 percent approval rating on its fight against corruption, a percentage point higher compared to the survey conducted on June 2014. Among the respondents, 26% gave the government a disapproval rating, for a net approval rating of 17%.

The level of concern on graft and corruption also declined from 47 percent in June 2014 to 41 percent in September 2014.

The survey was conducted during the time when several top government officials faced various controversies: The junking of the impeachment complaints—two of which stemmed from the Disbursement Acceleration Program—against President Benigno Aquino III in Congress; the ongoing Senate investigation into the reported overpricing in the Makati City Hall Building II, and calls for the resignation of PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima, among others.

In connection, 48 percent of Filipinos remained hopeful that corruption among government officials who use public funds can still be ended.

“Nearly half of Filipinos (48%) are of the view that it is still possible to successfully combat governmental corruption,”  Pulse Asia said.

Meanwhile, majority of Filipinos lauded the Aquino administration’s anti-criminality campaign, the same survey said.

The government got a passing grade for its anti-criminality campaign, an issue deemed urgent by the 25 percent of Filipinos.

In the survey conducted, majority of the surveyed Filipinos deemed inflation, low pay of workers, corruption, job creation, poverty reduction, and criminality as issues that must be immediately addressed by the current administration.

Fifty percent of Filipinos cited the need to control inflation but 46 percent believed the government was not addressing this.

Forty nine percent expressed concern on the low pay of workers while 41 percent of those surveyed believed that graft and corruption is also a top concern.

Other issues that the government should address include:

• creating more jobs, 38 percent
• reducing poverty of many Filipinos, 35 percent
• fighting criminality, 25 percent
• enforcing the law on all, whether influential or ordinary people, 15 percent
• increasing peace in the country, 12 percent
• controlling fast population growth, 12 percent
• stopping the destruction and abuse of the environment, 12 percent
• changing the Constitution, 6 percent
• defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners, 5 percent

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