Dip in Aquino's satisfaction rating should do him good

President Benigno Aquino III’s satisfaction rating may have dropped a little but by any standard it’s still high.

 

The Social Weather Station survey, conducted among 1,200 respondents nationwide on March 11-13, 2012, saw the President’s satisfaction rating dip nine points from plus 58 in Dec. 2011 which was “very good” to plus 49 which is still “good.”

 

His predecessor, Gloria Arroyo, never hit that high a satisfaction rating in her nine years of presidency. The highest she got was plus 30 in March 2004, two months before the 2004 elections.

 

As she was nearing her exit from Malacañang, dissatisfaction of Arroyo hit an all-time low for any post-Marcos president with a minus 53 satisfaction rating.

 

In a way, it favors Aquino that he succeeded someone very unpopular. In fact, much of his popularity springs from the people’s extreme dislike for Arroyo.

 

This is not the first time that Aquino’s satisfaction rating dipped. In the June 2011 survey, his satisfaction rating was plus 46. Considering that eight months earlier he was enjoying a plus 64 satisfaction rating, an 18-point drop jolted him and his advisers. He sold his Porsche, which was seen as a reflection of his immaturity.

 

He also intensified the drive to run after Arroyo and her trusted associates, starting with Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. He announced that by Christmas, Arroyo should be in jail.

 

The people loved that and his satisfaction rating went up to plus 56 in September 2011 and plus 58 in December 2011. Never mind that gasoline prices were going up, and more people were without jobs and experiencing hunger.

 

But popularity can be a double-edged sword. On one hand, it allows a leader more maneuverability. On the other hand, it can also lull him into complacency.

 

A friend, an avid supporter of Aquino, last month shared her concern about what popularity was doing to the President and his close advisers. She expressed her disappointment of Aquino’s quick defense of his friend, Cristino Naguiat Jr., chairman of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, who was exposed to have availed of the generosity of a Japanese casino owner, Kazuo Okada, in Macau.

 

PAGCOR regulates casino operations in the Philippines and the Japanese casino owner was applying for a license to operate a casino in the country.

 

Naguiat, together with his wife, three children and nanny, accompanied by another Pagcor official and his wife, were guests of Okada in Macau.

 

Aquino’s supporter said she told a Malacañang staff, “Why was the President quick to defend Bong (Naguiat)? It was off tangent to his crusade of ‘tuwid na daan.’”

 

The Palace staff, she said, replied: “Never mind. The President is popular.”