President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s approval ratings dropped four points due to public dissatisfaction over high prices, but he remains popular, the latest Pulse Asia survey showed.
The survey found that 78 percent of 1,200 respondents polled in March approved of Marcos’ performance, lower than the 82 percent he got in November. Some 80 percent said they trusted the President, down from 83 percent in the earlier poll.
Since taking office in June 2022, President Marcos has had to grapple with inflation that has soared to levels not seen in 14 years due largely to rising food and fuel costs.
Inflation slowed for a second straight month in March to 7.6 percent but remained well above the government’s 2 percent to 4 percent target for the year.
Controlling costs of living was the top concern of 63 percent of respondents.
Slightly more than half, or 52 percent, of respondents disapproved of the government’s handling of inflation, with 25 percent saying they approved, while the rest were undecided.
Marcos’ approval ratings were slightly lower than the 83 percent that his vice president, Sara Duterte-Carpio, got in March. Duterte, daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, currently serves as Education secretary, while Marcos heads the Agriculture department.
In the same survey, 61 percent of respondents approved of President Marcos’ governance in terms of “defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners”, up from 58 percent in November.
In the same poll, the top leaders of both chambers of Congress — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and House of Representatives Speaker Ferdinand Romualdez enjoyed the same majority approval score of 51 percent.
In the case of Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the same percentage of Filipino adults either approve of his quarterly performance (43 percent) or are ambivalent on the matter (41 percent).
In trust ratings, Zubiri got a 48 percent score, Romualdez 44 percent and Gesmundo, 39 percent.
The survey was conducted from March 15 to 19 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents nationwide.
The survey has a ± 2.8 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.