Senate Pres. Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON
Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said his recent higher approval and trust rating was “nothing out of the ordinary” compared to that of House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’ which he described as “impressive.”
“A nationally elected official is logically expected to have higher national rating compared to a locally elected official,” Pimentel told reporters on Monday when asked about his and Alvarez’ ratings from a Pulse Asia survey conducted on December 10-15 and 17, 2017.
“Hence nothing out of the ordinary when you compare my rating with that of the Speaker. But I should point out that for a locally elected official, the ratings of the Speaker are very high and very impressive. Hence congrats to the Speaker!” he added.
According to the survey, Pimentel got 57 percent national approval rating and 53 percent trust rating, while Alvarez garnered a 42 percent approval ratings and 37 percent trust ratings.
Last week, the two engaged in a word war after Alvarez called the Senate a “mabagal na kapulungan” (slow congress) for allegedly being slow in acting on important legislations.
Pimentel and Alvarez are both officers of the country’s ruling party, Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban). Pimentel is the president while Alvarez is the secretary general.
When asked if he expected the high mark from the public amid the issues being raised by some groups against the administration, such as alleged extrajudicial killings, charter change and the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) law among others, Pimentel answered: “Iba naman po ang Senate (The Senate is different). The Senate always investigates allegations of EJK (extrajudicial killings) and other abuses.”
“Hence that willingness to investigate fight and put an end to abuse and or allegations of abuse helped me and the Senate with our ratings,” he added.
The Senate President said he is also confident that the Train’s provision exempting from income tax the first P250,000 income of all Filipinos has brought positive impression on the public
He also remained positive on the federalism type of government their party has been pushing for.
“Regarding Cha-cha (Charter change) especially federalism, while I admit that not all are convinced as of the moment about federalism, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a critical mass out there supporting federalism. I believe there is,” Pimentel pointed out.
“That’s why I say ‘hinog na ang federalismo (Federalism is ripe).’ All of these circumstances I am sure have contributed to high ratings. Salamat naman din at appreciated ng taong bayan ang mga ginagawa natin (I’m thankful that the public is appreciative with what we are doing),” he added. /je