The mayors of Quezon City, Pasig and Manila scored the highest approval ratings among Metro Manila mayors for their overall performance in 2021, a recent survey has shown.
Quezon City Mayor Josefina “Joy” Belmonte obtained the top approval rating of 89%, followed by Pasig City Mayor Victor Maria Regis “Vico” Sotto (86%) and Manila Mayor Franciso “Isko Moreno” Domagoso (83%). Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian at 77% and Marikina City Mayor Marcy Teodoro at 76% both tied for the fourth spot. Navotas City Mayor Toby Tiangco ranked fifth with 73% result.
Makati City Mayor Abigail Binay was rated at 70%, Taguig City Mayor Lino Cayetano at 62%, Mandaluyong City Mayor Carmelita Abalos at 60%, San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora at 56%, and Muntinlupa City Mayor Jaime Fresnedi at 53%.
The survey was conducted by RP-Mission and Development Foundation Inc. (RPMDinc) through face-to-face interviews of 3,500 respondents. They were asked to rate their respective mayors based on their over-all job performance.
“Amongst 17 NCR Mayors only 13 are rated positively. Top NCR Mayors are doing an excellent job—not only that they were able to maintain their rankings, but performance approval ratings also went up,” said Dr. Paul Martinez of RPMDInc.
Remarkably, Martinez said Belmonte of Quezon City remained as the top performing NCR Mayor. Mayor Tiangco has the highest rating at (+8 percentage) compared from the previous survey which positioned him on the 5th spot. Mayor Malapitan (51%) and Mayor Ponce (50%) who had stumbled down in the last survey are now being rated positively.
Although, Mayor Cayetano (62%) achieved a high performance rating, his current rating went down by -7 percentage points compared to the previous survey by (69%), Martinez said.
The four remaining cities got an increased rating but remain at a low job approval percentage — Pasay (35%), Malabon (37%) and Paranaque (46%).
The respondents were also asked if they would vote for their mayors if they would run for re-election.
Sotto got the highest rating at 83%, followed by Belmonte, 80%; Moreno, 78%; Teodoro, 70%; Binay, 67%; Tiangco, 65%; Cayetano, 57%; and Abalos, 56%.
The respondents of the survey who participated from May 20-30, 2021 were registered voters and all residents of Metro Manila, aged 18 to 70. Sampling margin of error was at ±3 percent and 95% confidence level. They were randomly chosen and the number of respondents per city was distributed proportionally based on official population data.