Filipinos approve of PRRD admin, projects: analysts

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Gymnasium in Quezon City on August 27, 2019. KING RODRIGUEZ/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — Amid oppositions to his strong pronouncements as Chief Executive, political analysts from two of the top universities in Metro Manila think that President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance is both supported and enjoyed by the general public.

Edmund Tayao, executive director of the Local Government Development Foundation (LOGODEF) and a political analyst from Ateneo de Manila University, said the public “still very much agree with what the President is doing.”

“The public remains approving of his performance, given his continuous popularity,” he said in a phone interview on Thursday.

On Wednesday, survey firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) published Duterte’s 78 percent approval rating for the third quarter of 2019 with a +-65 percent net satisfactory rating, +- 2.3 percent margin of error.

The figure is three points lower than his second-quarter rating but it still falls under SWS’s “Very Good” category.

It also showed that rich Filipinos or class ABC were more satisfied with Duterte with +-70 percent rating which is his personal best.

“The upper class recognizes the effectiveness of how the government is handling the economy,” Tayao added.

Last Friday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported a steady drop in the inflation rate from 1.7 percent in August to 0.9 percent at present.

However, Duterte’s trust rating is down with 11 points in Class E with +-57 percent.

“You can’t expect consistency from all classes, especially from the lower class since they have issues, they deal with on their day to day lives. There is no significant change because, in general, the President is enjoying the trust of the people,” Tayao said.

On the other hand, Ranjit Rye, University of the Philippines’ assistant vice president for public affairs, said the 11-point drop is not surprising with the slow progress of solution for everyday problems such as the traffic condition.

“Large constituents of people are having a hard time. The important thing for the government is to find where the sentiments are coming from and improve on it. The President is still widely popular but they also have come up with ways to effectively and efficiently roll out the programs especially for the farmers,” he said.

Recently, the Department of Agrarian Reform announced that it has improved its processes to release the certificate of land ownership award (CLOA) to farmers around the country, following President Duterte’s order to uplift the status of Filipino farmers.