PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has the highest public approval and trust ratings, compared to three of his predecessors, a comparison released by opinion polling firm Pulse Asia showed Friday.
Following the latest September 2017 Ulat ng Bayan survey, Duterte has an 80 percent trust and approval rating, which the polling firm noted was higher than any rating earned by three of his predecessors–Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III.
He is also the most trusted president upon assuming office with an initial trust rating of 91 percent in July 2016.
Duterte, who rose to power in May 2016, has an average performance approval rating of 81.8 percent between September 2016 and September 2017 and an average trust rating of 82.8 percent between July 2016 and September 2017.
The President also scored higher approval ratings than his three other predecessors at above 80 percent. His highest was 86 percent in September 2016, while his lowest rating was 78 percent in March of this year.
Duterte’s 82.8-percent average trust rating between July 2016 and September 2017 is also higher than his three other predecessors.
Malacañang expressed appreciation on Duterte’s high approval and trust ratings.
“The President accepts this public appreciation with all humility, but regardless of survey results, [the President] and the members of his Cabinet would continue to work and advance public interest and build, as he said in numerous occasions, a nation worthy of the Filipinos,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement.
Next to Duterte, former President Benigno Aquino III recorded the highest rating at the onset of his term with a 79 percent approval rating and an 80 percent trust rating in October 2010.
Arroyo recorded the lowest trust and approval ratings among the four presidents with a 10 percent trust rating in February 2010 and a 14 percent approval rating in March 2010, a few months before she stepped down from office.
Both Estrada and Aquino suffered a drop in their approval ratings during the end of their terms while Arroyo left her post with a 2 percent increase, ending her term with a 16 percent rating in July 2010. John Paolo Bencito
Aquino also saw a boost in his trust rating just before he left office, with 49 percent in March 2016 from 39 percent in February of the same year.