Marcos, VP Sara approval ratings down —Pulse Asia

The approval rating of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte dropped in the September 2025 survey of Pulse Asia.

Marcos received a 33% approval rating in September, down from the 42% he got in June.  Similarly, Duterte's approval rating declined from 59% in June to 55% in September.

Pulse Asia conducted the survey fieldwork from September 27 to 30, 2025 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 representative adults, 18 years old and above.

The survey has a ± 2.8% error margin at the 95% confidence level. Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at 95% confidence level: ± 5.7% for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. 

Among the key developments happening during the conduct of the survey in September 2025 were:

• The investigation of the Senate and the House into budget insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) and ghost infrastructure projects across the country, particularly flood control projects. Several former and incumbent lawmakers and officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) were among those identified as being involved in these anomalies. 
• The creation of the Independent Commission on Infrastructure through Executive Order No. 94 to investigate the misuse of funds in infrastructure projects.
• Changes in the leadership of the DPWH and both chambers of Congress. Then Department of Transportation (DOTr) Secretary Vivencio Dizon was tapped to replaced DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan amidst allegations of irregularities in the agency’s flood control projects. And in light of the reported involvement of then Senate President Francis Escudero and House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez in budget insertions and related anomalies, they were replaced by Senator Vicente Sotto III and Isabela Representative Faustino Dy III, respectively. 
• The September 21 Trillion Pesos March in EDSA and the protest activities in Luneta and Mendiola linked to the corruption of flood control funds.
• Deliberations of the 2026 budget in the Senate and the House.

"From June 2025 to September 2025, the President’s approval scores decrease in the Visayas (-18 percentage points), Mindanao (-21 percentage points), and Class D (-9 percentage points). Conversely, levels of disapproval for presidential performance go up in the Visayas (+17 percentage points), Mindanao (+17 percentage points), and Class E (+18 percentage points). Ambivalence on the matter of approving or disapproving the President’s work becomes more manifest in Class D (+7 percentage points)," according to Pulse Asia.

As for Duterte, most Visayans (56%), Mindanawons (97%), and those in either Class D (54%) or Class E (71%) approve of the Vice-President’s work.

"Appreciation is the plurality sentiment in Metro Manila (42%). While the Vice-President has around the same approval and disapproval ratings in Class ABC (45% versus 31%), public opinion about her performance is split three (3) ways in the rest of Luzon (36% approval, 31% indecision, and 32% disapproval)," Pulse Asia added. —Jiselle Anne Casucian/LDF, GMA Integrated News