Aquino continues to enjoy high trust, approval ratings

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III continues to have the approval and trust of a large majority of Filipinos, survey results released Thursday, December 13 showed.

At least 78% of Filipinos approve of the President’s performance, while 6% disapprove of his work as the country’s chief executive, the Pulse Asia November 2012 Ulat ng Bayan Survey revealed Thursday.

The survey, conducted from November 23 to 29, also said that 16% of those surveyed said they are undecided about the President’s work.

The figures are virtually unchanged compared to the previous Ulat ng Bayan result from September 2012, and the changes in Aquino’s disapproval and undecided ratings are marginal, Pulse Asia noted.

“Big majority approval ratings are also registered across geographic areas (74% to 83%) and socio-economic classes (75% to 79%),” the survey noted.

The President also enjoys the trust of a large majority of Filipinos, at 80%, with only 4% distrusting him. As with his approval rating, the percentage of undecideds is at 16%.

“Trust is the majority sentiment in all geographic areas (78% to 85%) and socio-economic classes (79% to 83%),” the survey firm’s report noted.

‘Few significant movements’ in ratings

On the other hand, the national government saw few significant changes in its performance ratings in the latest Pulse Asia survey.

“Small to sizeable majority approval ratings” were registered by the current administration on 8 out of 11 issues:

• Fighting criminality (67%)
• Fighting corruption (65%)
• Enforcing the rule of law (64%)
• Promoting peace (63%)
• Protecting the environment (60%)
• Defending the country’s territorial integrity (57%)
• Increasing the pay of workers (56%)
• Creating more jobs (55%)

On the issues of controlling population growth and reducing poverty, the government did not fare as well, but still got approval from a large percentage of those surveyed (47% and 44%, respectively).

There were virtually the same percentage of people who approve and disapprove of the government’s response to controlling inflation: 40% approval, 38% disapproval.

The government got a significant bump in their approval ratings on territorial integrity and the environment, Pulse Asia noted.

On the other hand, Filipinos were most critical when it came to poverty reduction and inflation control.

The survey was done nationwide, with a sample of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above, the survey firm said.

It has a +/-3% margin of error at the 95% confidence level, they added.

“Pulse Asia’s pool of academic fellows takes full responsibility for the design and conduct of the survey, as well as for analyses it makes based on the survey data. In keeping with our academic nature, no religious, political, economic, or partisan group influenced any of these processes. Pulse Asia undertakes Ulat ng Bayan surveys on its own without any party singularly commissioning the research effort,” Pulse Asia said. – Rappler.com

The full report from Pulse Asia is below.

MR2 – UB2012-4 MR on Presidential Ratings (FINAL)