MANILA – Senate President Franklin Drilon has expressed optimism that the Senate will be able to recover from low net satisfaction rating in the next survey.
”I’m confident that in the next survey, the people will be able to realize that we are working here in the Senate,” Drilon said on Tuesday.
Based on the latest survey commissioned by the Makati Business Club, the Senate as well as the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) suffered the worst net satisfaction rating among the national government offices.
Drilon said the Senate has to accept the “reality” that the controversies brought by the alleged misuse of P10-billion priority development assistance fund (PDAF) and Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) have severely damaged the image of the Senate as an institution.
”We accept that reality. What important is we have to show to the people that we deserve their trust,” Drilon said.
Neophyte Senator Juan Edgardo Angara agreed with Drilon that the Senate will be able to bounce back if the upper chamber will be able to pass bills that will uplift the lives of majority of the Filipinos.
”I think the Senate will regain the trust in the new few years specially if we can pass bill lowering the taxes,” Angara said in media interview after the Senate public hearings on proposed measures reducing taxes of the marginalized income earners.
The PDAF controversy has led to the detention of Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Revilla Jr.
The three senators have been charged of plunder for allegedly receiving kickbacks from the PDAF they released to the bogus non-government organizations (NGOs) of businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles.