MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III appeared unfazed by the recent drop in his satisfaction ratings.

A recently released Social Weather Stations survey showed the Filipinos who are dissatisfied with Aquino’s performance were at 19% in September, up from June’s 12%.

Aquino’s net satisfaction rating for the third quarter of 2013 was at 49%, down from 64% in June.

The President said, however, he was not bothered by the numbers.

“I’ve always said, we should not govern based on numbers. We should govern based on what is right. That should be the basis of our decisions,” he said.

The President said he believed the pork barrel scam affected his ratings, even if he was not yet in Malacañang during the years a lot of the corruption happened.

“I guess I was lumped together with the rest because we’re all government officials. In time, the people will see what we have done so as not to repeat that audacity [exhibited by the government] from 2007 to 2010, which were the worst years. They will see that, and I think they can be the judge,” he said.

Aquino gave assurances his government will continue to pursue justice in these corruption cases.

“We have witnesses, and cases have been filed. It’s already with the Ombudsman which is an independent constitutional body tasked to bring the cases before the Sandiganbayan, and we will be filing more cases,” he said.

The pork barrel scam was first reported by news outlets in July, and confirmed by a special consolidated Commission on Audit (COA) report covering the years 2007-2009. The misuse of lawmakers’ pork barrel in succeeding years – including Aquino’s administration – are detailed in the individual audit reports of implementing agencies.

The Department of Justice has since filed plunder complaints with the Ombudsman against those allegedly involved. Janet Lim Napoles, the alleged mastermind of the scam, is accused of conniving with lawmakers to channel their Priority Development Assistance Fund to her bogus non-governmental organizations in exchange for hefty kickbacks.

Napoles faces plunder charges with 37 others, including 3 senators and several former congressmen in relation to the misuse of pork barrel funds. – Rappler.com