Drop in people’s expectations normal in any admin: Palace

“I think it is normal that after about a year in office, that people will say that the election promises may not be met. But having said that, the same survey indicated that the people still rated the President with ‘very good’ in terms of performance,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing. (VALERIE ESCALERA/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

MANILA — Malacañang on Monday said the drop in the number of Filipinos expecting President Rodrigo Duterte to fulfill most, if not all, of his campaign promises is normal in any administration that has been a year in office, stressing however that what matters most is that majority of Filipinos remain satisfied with the performance of the Duterte administration.

According the Third Quarter 2017 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, done on September 23-27, 35 percent of respondents said they expect President Duterte to fulfill most, if not all, of his promises.

This consists of 8 percent saying Duterte can fulfill “all or nearly all,” and 27 percent saying he can fulfill “most” of his promises.

Meanwhile, 57 percent answered “a few,” and 6 percent said “none or almost none.”

The September 2017 proportion of those expecting most, if not all, of President Duterte’s promises to be fulfilled is 17 points below the 52 percent (17 percent all or nearly all, 35 percent most) in March 2017.

“I think it is normal that after about a year in office, that people will say that the election promises may not be met. But having said that, the same survey indicated that the people still rated the President with ‘very good’ in terms of performance,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a Palace briefing.

The survey showed that 71 percent of adult Filipinos satisfied, 16 percent neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, and 13 percent dissatisfied with the general performance of the current National Administration, for a net satisfaction rating of +58, classified by SWS as very good.

On the decline in the number of Filipinos expecting the President to fulfill his promises, Roque pointed out that there was no specific promise mentioned in the survey question.

The survey question was, “Sa inyong palagay, ilan sa mga pangako ni Pang. Rody Duterte ang posibleng matutupad? [Lahat o halos lahat sa mga pangako, karamihan sa mga pangako, mga ilan sa mga pangako, halos wala o wala sa mga pangako] (In your opinion, how many of the promises of Pres. Rody Duterte can be fulfilled? [All or nearly all of the promises, Most of the promises, A few of the promises, Almost none or none of the promises])”.

“It’s hard to speculate because the survey did not ask the respondents on what particular promise he has not delivered,” he said.

“But I think one very good thing about the campaign strategy of the President was he kept his promises very simple and very few, and there was of course the war against drug, there was pursuit of independent foreign policy and there’s the zero tolerance to corruption and if he were to be gauged ‘no on those promises, I would say he should have an excellent rating,” Roque said.

But surveys aside and regardless of the numbers, he said the Duterte administration continues to work hard to bring a comfortable life for all where citizens feel safe and secure under a trustworthy government.

“I think surveys will come and go. The President has once said that he doesn’t look at surveys, but the surveys nonetheless are very good as far as the people’s approval of his performance are concerned,” he said.

“Going beyond surveys, we have shown that President Duterte has shown political will. He has won the battle in Marawi, we have substantial gains on the economy, and we now lead ASEAN as far as manufacturing is concerned and as far as investments are concerned,” Roque said.

Just recently, the Nikkei Philippine Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) showed the Philippines taking the lead in Southeast Asia manufacturing activity with a score of 53.7 for the month of October, which is higher than last month’s score of 50.8.

This makes the Philippines on top of ASEAN countries in overall growth ranking in the manufacturing sector.

The Philippines is also expected to have significantly better trade prospects for 2017 according to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia Pacific (UNESCAP) in the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2017: Channeling Trade and Investment into Sustainable Development.

The positive outlook is a result of the improved services export performance, 58.6 percent year-on-year increase in the telecommunication services and 11.3 percent growth in the number of international tourist arrivals.

In addition, UNESCAP considered the Philippines as a rising star on foreign direct investment (FDI) because of the 60 percent growth in the county’s FDIs inflows due partly to simplified procedures for foreign investments.