Palace on ratings dip: Just a hiccup

Malacañang on Thursday said the six-point decline in the public’s satisfaction with the Duterte administration, as reported by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), was just a “hiccup.”

On the whole, the Filipinos’ trust in the administration is “amazing,” according to presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

Abella said the +58 public satisfaction rating, which is “very good,” was higher than any of the ratings his predecessors got in the same period.

The SWS’ third quarter survey found that 71 percent of Filipino adults were satisfied and 13 percent dissatisfied with the administration, for a net satisfaction rating of +58. While remaining in the “very good” category, this was also six points below its “very good” +64 satisfaction rating in June.

“I’m sure it’s a dip, you know, it’s like  a hiccup,” Abella said in a press briefing.

While the Palace would like to initially conduct an analysis of the full report, he said the people’s “trust is amazing,” as seen as well in previous results.

“Apparently, the people continue to trust the President to be able to bring them into the promises that they voted him in for. In other words, there seems to be an enormous capacity of social capital. An enormous wellspring of social capital that the President can draw upon in order to fulfill his campaign promises,” he said.

He does not think the latest results would affect the President’s credibility. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH