MANILA, NOVEMBER 17, 2010 (STAR) By Helen Flores - Eighty percent of Filipinos expressed trust in President Aquino while almost the same percentage were satisfied with his performance in his first three months in office, a latest survey by Pulse Asia revealed yesterday.
Pulse Asia's Ulat ng Bayan survey, conducted from Oct. 20 to 29, found 79 percent of adult Filipinos approve of his performance and 80 percent of respondents expressing trust in him.
The survey showed Aquino registered big majority approval ratings (75 percent to 86 percent) and trust ratings (75 percent to 87 percent) in all of the country's geographic areas, with those in the Visayas giving him his highest ratings.
Across socio-economic groupings, 74 percent to 83 percent approve of the President's performance while 78 percent to 85 percent trust him.
"The highest figures, in this case, are recorded in the poorest Class E," Pulse Asia said.
Pulse Asia said this was the first time Aquino was rated on his performance in its regular Ulat ng Bayan survey.
In July 2010, although the President had already been proclaimed, survey respondents were asked to rate his performance during his last three months in the Senate, the pollster said.
Rated as a senator, Aquino scored an overall approval rating of 88 percent and an overall trust rating of 85 percent, it said.
Sought for comment about the slight decline in his ratings, the President said having skeptics and critics is just part of his job, apart from the fact that he cannot please everybody all the time.
In a brief interview with reporters, the Chief Executive partly attributed the decline to the Aug. 23 hostage crisis where he acted on the recommendations of the incident investigation and review committee.
Aquino pointed out that the 88 percent net satisfaction he got was obviously too high for anybody to achieve, which could only mean it has nowhere to go but down, partly because he also went full blast against so-called midnight appointees and abusive GOCC executives.
"Of course, there are those who are satisfied with my performance but there are also those who aren't. Also, there really are challenges that we encounter along the way," he explained.
Aquino said family and friends of those who have been enjoying their malpractices in the previous dispensation will definitely be affected by the reform programs he has been implementing, which could satisfactorily point to the dip in ratings.
But what is heartwarming is the fact that figures in the survey reveal that a huge majority of the population still think that the Aquino government is doing its job well.
Aquino vowed that he will continue to work even more "to ensure that the numbers will grow."
But he clarified that he is not after popularity surveys.
"Not because I'm chasing numbers but rather, I think, I've just been given new directions that what I am doing is on the right track and therefore we should accelerate the growth."
Indecision ratings
Pulse Asia said almost two in 10 Filipinos were unable to say if they approve or disapprove of Aquino's performance (18 percent) and if they trust or distrust him (17 percent).
Essentially the same indecision ratings in performance and trust may be noted across geographic areas (12 percent to 22 percent and 12 percent to 23 percent, respectively) and socio-economic classes (15 percent to 21 percent and 14 percent to 21 percent, respectively), Pulse Asia said.
On the other hand, the President posted a single-digit disapproval and distrust ratings at the national level (three percent and two percent, respectively) and in the different geographic areas (two percent to four percent and one percent to four percent, respectively).
Pulse Asia said Aquino registered overall indecision ratings of 10 percent to 18 percent and overall disapproval and distrust ratings of two percent when he was last assessed as a senator in the Pulse Asia's July 2010 nationwide survey.
The survey likewise found most Filipinos expressed appreciation for the work done by the Aquino administration on eight out of 11 key national issues.
Approval for the present administration's efforts to address key national issues is expressed by small majorities of Filipinos – criminality (62 percent), job creation (59 percent), law enforcement (58 percent), corruption (57 percent), peace (56 percent), workers' pay (56 percent), population control (53 percent), and environmental degradation (51 percent).
In contrast, nearly half of Filipinos were satisfied with the government's performance on three national issues – expanding the sources of government funds (48 percent), poverty reduction (47 percent) and inflation (45 percent).
Pulse Asia said inflation is considered as an urgent national concern (i.e., an issue requiring the immediate attention of the government) by about half of Filipinos (49 percent).
Meanwhile, it is on the issues of inflation and poverty reduction that the Aquino administration scores its highest disapproval ratings (21 percent and 18 percent, respectively).
Given the survey's error margins, nearly the same disapproval ratings (nine percent to 14 percent) are registered by the current dispensation on the other national issues probed in this survey, Pulse Asia said.
Indecision levels, on the other hand, range from 28 percent on criminality to 42 percent on the expansion of sources of government funds, it said.
The survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 representative adults 18 years old and above.
It has sampling error margin of plus or minus three percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
More good news
Meantime, while he was in Yokohama for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit, President Aquino said he is seeking more good news to be highlighted in the media to improve the country's image not only before Filipinos all over the world but also the international community.
Aquino said in general, it was easier for the media to report the bad rather than the good news.
But Aquino assured the Filipino community in Yokohama on Sunday afternoon that his government was striving to make changes and that every Filipino could again face anybody head up.
The President joined the Filipinos in a Mass at the Yokohama Futaba High School and delivered a speech afterwards. He said he made sure he would be able to see them despite the many meetings he had to attend to at the recently concluded APEC Leaders' Summit here.
"Most probably, not everything that's happening in the country reaches you. What you get to watch on television or read in the newspaper and the Internet are usually the negative and crooked opinion. Because what happens is, to get attention, especially those who are lacking in it, they keep on scratching even a small wound," Aquino said.
The President said anybody would lose interest if only the bad things were being reported.
"That is why we are here to tell you that your families in the Philippines are in good hands," Aquino said.
"What I want to relay to you is simple. Good things are already happening in the country left and right. We are no longer failing the Filipinos. We are now taking care of our fellowmen. You're still my boss," he said.
Aquino said he was working to make every dream a reality since he launched the "Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap" battlecry during the campaign. – With Delon Porcalla, Aurea Calica
Noy unable to raise VFA issue with Obama By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 16, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (2)
YOKOHAMA – President Aquino was not able to raise the country's concerns about the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) during his brief meeting with US President Barack Obama but he did bring up issue of the adverse travel advisories against the Philippines.
At the conclusion of the summit last Sunday, Aquino had a short talk with Obama during a lunch among leaders.
He explained to Obama that other countries in Europe and Asia had experienced worse terror attacks but are receiving lower alerts. Obama promised to look into the matter.
Aquino also raised the issue of the adverse travel advisories during the APEC chief executive officers' summit where he was one of the panelists along with New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, and during a bilateral meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia , France and United Kingdom issued travel advisories scaring away potential investors.
The issuance of alerts came amid calls for review of the VFA.
Noy's love life in Japan Times By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 15, 2010 12:00 AM Comments (40)
YOKOHAMA – One of the big newspapers here, Japan Times, carried news items about President Aquino twice, but one was on confirmation of his date with young celebrity stylist Liz Uy.
The first article came out last Saturday on page 10 of the newspaper, which carried his statements about the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation Chief Executive Officers Summit. The article was titled "APEC growth can drive world economy: CEOs" and had his photograph.
The other one came out in a news brief on page 5 and was titled: "Aquino confirms new romance."
In his speech before the Filipino community yesterday afternoon, Aquino joked: "Here in Japan, we were able to discuss a lot of things and was even able to raise the travel advisory with (United States) President (Barack) Obama and other coordination with different regions. But what came out in the newspaper here is about my love life."
"When we talked with the companies, they committed to make big investments in our country that will create jobs and this would be a big help to our country. Maybe you can leave my love life to myself. Thank you very much," the President, who is a bachelor at 50, said in jest as the crowd laughed.
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