Palace welcomes SWS survey rating, says more Pinoys believe in Duterte’s ‘honest intentions’

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech after issuing the Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) to the Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company Inc. (Mislatel) during a ceremony at the Malacañan Palace on July 8, 2019. ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

Malacañang has welcomed the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that President Rodrigo Duterte got +68 in net satisfaction rating for his performance as the country’s Chief Executive, noting that the number of Filipinos believing in his “honest intentions” are increasing.

“The increasing satisfaction rating of the President is getting to be a habitual vexing news to the critics, detractors and the opposition,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement on Tuesday, July 9.

“The more they hit PRRD with dirt, the more people trust him. The more the Left assault him with a torrent of false narratives, the greater our people admire him. The uglier the militant groups of the church paint the Chief Executive, the prettier his image becomes, and the more the biased media assault him with negative propaganda, the more the people are enamoured with him,” he added.

In the Second Quarter 2019 Social Weather Survey, done from June 22 to 26 of this year, the pollster found that 80 percent of Filipino adults are satisfied with Duterte’s performance as President, while 12 percent are dissatisfied. The other nine percent, meanwhile, were undecided.

The SWS noted that this is Duterte’s “new personal record-high,” besting his previous record of “very good” +66 recorded in March 2019 and June 2017.

Panelo has also urged the critics of the current administration to look at the President “in the best lights” and “not with jaundice eyes.”

“The reality is unmistakable. More and more Filipinos, even former cynics, are believing in the President’s honest intentions for our nation,” the spokesman said.

“They see how PRRD translates his words into action with his programs and policies positively experienced by them,” he continued.

‘Just doing the job’

Duterte, on the other hand, just commented that he was just doing his role as the Philippine leader.

“I do not go for this kind of things. Basta ako, trabaho lang (For me, I was just doing my job),” he said on Monday, July 8.

“As always, sinabi ko (I said), if you are satisfied with my work, then I’m happy. If you are not satisfied, I will work more,” he added.

But even though the President shrugged off his satisfaction rating, Duterte’s “excellent” rating, according to the Palace official, only shows that he is “on the right track in his policies and actions of governance.”

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, with sampling error margins of plus or minus three percent for national percentages and plus or minus six percent each for regional percentages.