ZAMBOANGA CITY — The administration is eyeing for higher approval ratings from independent pollsters even as President Rodrigo Roa Duterte already enjoys elevated public satisfaction and trust ratings on his performance.
In a phone patch radio interview on Friday, July 26, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar said he expects higher appreciation from the public by the end of President Duterte’s term. “We are very confident and inspired to work more so that by the end of President’s term, we can have more than 85 percent that approves, [and] trusts him that he is really doing his job. We are targeting about 87 to 90 percent” he said in a radio interview with DXRZ RMN Zamboanga on Friday.
The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey result earlier this month showed that 80 percent of Filipinos were satisfied with the President’s performance. This was followed by a Pulse Asia poll that bared 85-percent trust and approval ratings for President Duterte.
Andanar mentioned that the ratings mark the gold standard of the Duterte administration that the succeeding government will have to surpass. He attributed the results to the fulfillment of President Duterte’s promises in terms of poverty alleviation, infrastructure, and peace and order. Andanar added that the results will boost the morale of the administration to sustain and even strengthen efforts to reach the government’s development goals such as reducing poverty to 14% by 2022 from 21% in the first half of 2018 and becoming an upper-middle-class income country by then.
“Our duty for the next three years is to really make the lives of the Filipino people comfortable,” he noted, and stressing that while the government continues to craft better legislation and resolve problems, the public should also mature and lobby for more changes. “If this becomes the gold standard, then the next president will need to also strive or work harder to achieve the things that we cannot gain during the current term,” Andanar added.
