Marcos, Duterte approval ratings down in September —Pulse Asia poll

The approval ratings of both President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte dropped in the third quarter of 2023, a Pulse Asia survey released on Monday showed.

The survey indicated that Marcos' approval rating was at 65% in September, a decrease from 80% in June.

Meanwhile, Duterte's approval rating was at 73% in September, which was also lower from her rating of 84% in June.

'Significant erosions'

"Although the President and the Vice-President continue to enjoy majority approval scores at the national level and across geographic areas and socio-economic classes, both experience significant erosions in their respective approval ratings during the period June 2023 to September 2023," the Pulse Asia said.

It said that the levels of approval for Marcos' work declined in the Philippines as a whole (-15 percentage points) and in all areas and classes (-14 to -15 percentage points and -12 to -29 percentage points, respectively).

When it comes to Duterte, the pollster said her approval ratings dropped at the national level (-11 percentage points) as well as in Metro Manila (-12 percentage points), the rest of Luzon (-13 percentage points), Class ABC (-18 percentage points), and Class D (-11 percentage points).

Meanwhile, other top government officials had the following approval ratings: Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, 50%; Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, 41%; and Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, 34%.

Trust ratings

In the same survey, Pulse Asia also said there was a decrease in the trust ratings of both Marcos and Duterte in September 2023, which were 71% and 75%, respectively.

In June, Marcos enjoyed an 85% trust rating while Duterte scored 87%.

The trust ratings of other officials were: Zubiri, 49%; Romualdez, 38%; and Gesmundo, 33%.

The survey, conducted from September 10 to 14, had 1,200 respondents and a ± 2.8 percent error margin.

Among the key developments during the weeks immediately prior to
and during the conduct of the survey interviews was the congressional deliberations regarding the P5.7-trillion national budget for 2024, with
the House Appropriations Committee approving the P4.8 billion in confidential and intelligence funds requested by some government entities, including the Office of the President, the Office of the Vice-President, and the Department of Education.

It was also the period for the implementation of Executive Order (EO) No. 39, that sets the national price ceiling for regular milled rice at P41/kilo and P45/kilo for well-milled rice, a move that surprised members of the administration’s economic team since they were not consulted on the matter.

Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes said the double-digit drop in Marcos and Duterte’s approval ratings could be attributed to the "unresolved and ever-worsening economic crisis and the apparent corruption within the regime."

"The lack of decisive action to address high prices and low wages, coupled with the national budget skewed in favor of non-transparent and unnecessary items such as confidential and travel funds, may have been major factors in the drop in approval ratings," Reyes said in a statement.

GMA News Online has reached out to the Palace and the Office of the Vice President for their comment on the latest ratings, but they have yet to respond as of posting time. —KBK/KG, GMA Integrated News