Arroyo not surprised to get low approval, trust ratings in Pulse Asia survey

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte is joined by Former President and Incumbent Pampanga Second District Representative Gloria Arroyo and Sec. Bong Go of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President as they witness the program proper during the 116th Labor Day Celebration at the IEC Convention Center in Cebu City on May 1, 2018. (RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)

House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was not bothered by a recent survey which shows that the former president was the least approved and trusted top government official in the country.

“Those trust ratings are not new to me.  Remember I was pilloried very much when I was president?

So I haven’t done much to overcome that because I just have to do my work,” Arroyo said.

“My thrust is to concentrate on my work. I already said it the last time, I am not a stranger to those kinds of ratings,” she added.

The House Speaker told this to media on the sidelines of her gift-giving event in a coastal village in Sasmuan, Pampanga on Friday, January 11.

In the survey released by Pulse Asia on the same day, Arroyo only got a 27 percent approval rating and a 21 percent trust rating.

She obtained a 43 percent disapproval rating and a distrust rating of 45 percent on her performance as a government official.

Arroyo’s trust rating is highest in Metro Manila which is at 52 percent.

While the House Speaker is at the bottom of the list, President Rodrigo Duterte, on the other hand, got the highest approval and trust ratings which is at 81 percent and 76 percent, respectively.

Duterte was followed by Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo who obtained a 62 percent approval rating and a 56 percent trust rating.

Senate President Vicente III, meanwhile, ranked third, with 74 percent approval rating and 66 percent trust rating.

Pulse Asia conducted the survey from December 14-21 last year using face-to-face interviews with its 1,800 survey respondents whose age ranges from 18 years old and above.

The polling body noted that one of the prominent issues that preoccupied Filipinos during the survey period is the allegation of Senator Panfilo Lacson where he said that apart from the P2.4-billion “fund insertions” in the budget allocated to the districts of Arroyo and House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya which amounted to P2.4-billion and P1.9-billion, respectively, several districts in Bohol, Surigao, and other areas in the Visayas and Mindanao whose representatives are “close” to Arroyo also got “huge allocations” in the 2019 budget.