President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval and trust ratings dropped in the third quarter, an independent pollster revealed Tuesday.
The latest Pulse Asia survey found that 75 percent of Filipinos approved of Duterte’s performance, a 13-point drop from the 88 percent approval rating recorded in June.
The President’s trust rating also dropped to 72 percent from the previous 87 percent in the previous quarter.
“At the national level, President Duterte experienced a decline in his approval ratings [-13 percentage points] and a rise in indecision (+5 percentage points) during the period June to September 2018,” the survey said.
“Indecision concerning presidential trustworthiness becomes more marked between June and September 2018 among Filipinos as a whole (+8 percentage points) and in the rest of Luzon and Class D in particular (+9 and +8 percentage points, respectively),” it added.
Despite the decrease, the President remains the most approved and most trusted top government official in the quarter.
The Palace said the latest result was still a very good rating.
“Well, I believe that [is] still a very good approval rating. [It was] certainly higher than mine. But [it was] still the highest of all the officials surveyed by Pulse Asia,” said Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque in a Palace press briefing Tuesday.
Vice President Leni Robredo obtained 61 percent and 56 percent approval and trust ratings, respectively. She acquired majority approval and trust scores in most geographic areas, except in Metro Manila.
Only those in Classes D and E gave Robredo majority trust figures (56 percent to 66 percent), Pulse Asia said.
The survey, conducted from Sept. 1-7, came on the heels of Duterte’s revocation of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s amnesty, the rice crisis, soaring prices of commodities, the blasts in Sultan Kudarat, and the President’s visit to Israel and Jordan.
The nationwide survey was done through face-to-face interviews with 1,800 registered voters. The poll has a + 2 percent error margin at the national level with a 95 percent confidence level.
