“As for Malacanang and its advisers, including its army of uninspired and ineffective trolls, remember that imagery cannot for long paper over reality”
That the numbers would go down does not come as a surprise.
That they would go down by 15 points after a mere 14-and-a-half months of a presidency elected by 31.6 million or 58 percent of the entire electorate, that is the surprise.
At about the same time as Pulse Asia did their field work, a friend did research for a local government official somewhere in Central Luzon.
Though the research measured local politicians, he included approval and trust ratings of the president. He was shocked at the outcome.
I was on the way down from Baguio on Wednesday, September 13, when that friend called to report his findings, which I later shared with some close friends, who were rather skeptical, even as they acknowledged the persistent inflation should make the president worry.
Central Luzon, Calabarzon and NCR historically mirror the perceptions of the rest of the nation.
Duterte in 2016 swept Vis-Min, excepting Western Visayas which voted for favorite son Mar Roxas, but NCR and Southern Luzon went for him, although CL went marginally for Grace Poe. Thus did the Davao City mayor win over political heavyweights.
But in 2022, BBM won in all three big regions where the combined votes comprise 37 percent of all Philippines.
He also carried Mindanao, gifted to him by his vice-president, Inday Sara, or better yet, President Duterte’s Fortress Mindanao.
He likewise won in Central and Eastern Visayas, though the traditional yellow forces gave Western Visayas to Leni Robredo.
The latest Pulse Asia survey was done from September 10 to 14, and the 15-point drop was the average after a huge fall in Class E by 29 percent.
Expectedly, the income classes ABC, meaning the rich and the upper middle classes, saw a 22 point drop.
What saved the president from a steeper plunge was Class D, the middle class and its lower strata, giving him just a 12-point drop, still hefty enough to be truly worrisome.
The second part of Pulse Asia’s survey gave the reason for the steep fall so early in the game. High prices, low wages, unemployment.
Politics of the stomach.
Life is hard, never been more difficult.
To be fair, the state of the economy is not all PFRM Jr’s doing.
The huge debt, now P14.7 trillion, and by next year P15.7 or a trillion more, is legacy, brought about by the pandemic wreaking havoc on people’s well-being, and the huge costs attendant to making our people survive through it.
Huge subsidies on top of economic contraction requires sourcing of revenues to support it, and that can only be financed by greater debt.
Food inflation which impacts the poor most severely, is a compounded result of years and years of neglect of the agricultural sector, from corruption-laced irrigation and other projects, to low budgetary support, antiquated technology and post-harvest facilities, and a penchant for food imports to substitute for lowered food production.
If we go through the gamut of all these causes of our food insecurity, we will never end this article in time for submission.
The point is, the state of our agriculture is also legacy from previous administrations put together.
But the political impact of the steep decline in public approbation comes at a time when the opposition has been virtually silenced, save for a lone Risa Hontiveros in the Senate, and three representatives of the progressive Left in the House.
The yellows, just a decade ago most powerful, have been silent after they were eaten up by the pinks in the last election.
The pinks, including the lord bishops of the numerous Church, have likewise been eerily silent, but for some pipsqueaks (“pitik” in street lingo) by a bishop or two here and there when yellow festivals are commemorated.
Even the president’s rivals in 2022 have been silent or supportive.
Leni is happily traipsing around the world, posting pictures of her sojourns in social media platforms.
Isko is back in the entertainment industry, happily engaged in Iskovery and Eat Bulaga.
Pacman is deep into financial problems with a US court dunning him for multi-millions, and Ping has become a political sniper, giving insightful quips now and then on economic problems brought about by waste and corruption.
Which is why Malacanang should be worried about this rude awakening.
Absent a forceful opposition, even if traditionally, our presidents have been given honeymoon status in the first year in office, even two years, absent a huge scandal, could only mean that the dissatisfaction runs deep.
And that is where our president must trace back the antecedents that brought about this awakening this early.
The first is over-promising.
Remember the saying, ‘promise little, perform more’? Or under-promise, over-perform?
Promising P20 per kilo of rice was unattainable to begin with. It is as foolish a goal as Tallano and his gold.
Fortifying fool’s goal with the illusion of possibility through a puny effort called Kadiwa which has become almost moribund, “naghihingalo” in Tagalog, creates more dissatisfaction because of frustration.
And then coming up with a King Canute-like rice price cap which made the Class E feel more wretched in their poverty as only they and they alone would be forced to eat rejects from the tables of the rich and middle class, along with poor man’s pinakbet or bulanglang of high-priced eggplants, onions, garlic, tomatoes to go with ampalaya makes dissatisfaction more bitter to take.
On the day bad rice was force-selling at double the P20 promise, the president flew off to Singapore for his annual high in the F-1 car races, which even his so-so speech with so-so Milken Institute could only rib off on ordinary folks as insensitivity.
Then too, not even the poor can fail to understand the drift in government policies and statements, the indirection, the seeming lack of management in high places.
From a short-shredded Malacanang staff to motherhood statements accompanying spotty ayuda.
All they get are optics, illusions, chimera of better things to come.
Is it hubris?
Is it the heady narcotic of power?
Even the normally unflappable Inday Sara shared the fall in public approval.
And, if we are to be precise, the monumental flak from unexplained confidential and intelligence funds were not yet captured by the period of the Pulse Asia survey.
Would something the masa not normally comprehend now become Achilles heel to the vice-president so early in the games of 2028?
Abangan ang susunod na survey.
As for Malacanang and its advisers, including its army of uninspired and ineffective trolls, remember that imagery cannot for long paper over reality.