Trillanes doubts validity of Duterte’s high ratings, Pulse Asia poll

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Friday questioned the validity of the Pulse Asia survey that showed glowing numbers for President Rodrigo Duterte a few days after another survey firm found his net satisfaction rating plummet by 20 points.

Duterte's approval and trust ratings, according to Pulse Asia, continued to go up in June despite criticisms against his administration's tax reform law and his crackdown on street idlers.

The June 15 to 21 poll of 1,800 respondents showed 88 percent approve Duterte’s performance, up eight percentage points from March’s 80 percent.

His trust rating, meanwhile, improved to 87 percent from 79 percent in March.

“That is clearly a sampling design error and, therefore, invalid. Pulse Asia, historically, keeps on insisting to use respondents of Davao City to generalize or represent the population for the whole Mindanao,” Trillanes told reporters.

“This is not valid anymore because the respondents of the other regions are clearly not as fanatical to or fearful of Duterte as the Davaoeños are,” he added.

Asked about the basis of his comment, the senator said, “We know Pulse Asia's sampling design.”

According to the Social Weather Stations latest poll, Duterte's net satisfaction rating has fallen to a new personal low of +45 a few weeks before he delivers his third State of the Nation Address.

The SWS' survey findings for the second quarter of 2018, Duterte's satisfaction rating fell 11 percentage points from +56 in March.

The 11-point decline pushed Duterte down by one grade from very good to good in the SWS' scale.

The SWS' second quarter survey was conducted from June 27 to 30 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.

Commenting on the Pulse Asia survey, Senator Panfilo Lacson said he had learned two major factors that endear the country’s leaders to the people - performance and messaging, not necessarily in that order.

He said that in the case of the President, he seemed to be using both factors to his advantage.

“His crass language and blunt words, no matter how he delivers, come across as his tool to project sincerity. Either that, or he is simply 'teflonic'," Lacson said.

"That could probably the reason why the concept of transition government under the draft Charter won’t fly. Majority of Filipinos would not allow him to cut short his term to allow the election of a transition president,” he added.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III just said Duterte's Pulse Asia numbers "speak for itself.” —NB, GMA News