SENATE President Aquilino Pimentel III has vowed to “work harder” following the latest Pulse Asia survey that gave him the third highest approval rating among the country’s top five officials.
“I will make sure it is not misplaced,” said Pimentel, who formulated, after winning the Senate presidency, an 11-point Program of Government for Change, laying the “basis for the development and progress of our country and people.”
He thanked Filipinos for “their faith in me,” and said he was “humbled and inspired” by the trust placed in him.
Pimentel gained a 61-percent approval rating in the nationwide survey, called the September 2016 Ulat ng Bayan, conducted by Pulse Asia from Sept. 25 to Oct. 1, among 1,200 respondents using face-to-face interviews.
The survey has a plus/minus 3 percent error margin and 95 percent confidence level.
Pimentel also received a 99-percent awareness rating, while 55 percent of respondents also said they have “big trust” in him. This trust rating reflected a five-percent increase from the July 2016 survey, which gave him a 50-percent trust rating.
His approval rating is highest in Mindanao at 65 percent, followed by Balance of Luzon at 64, then NCR at 59 percent, and finally Visayas at 49 percent.
Among socioeconomic classes, Class ABC showed the highest approval of Pimentel at 74 percent, while Class D and E gave him 60 percent and 59 percent, respectively.
President Rodrigo Duterte, the PDP Laban standard bearer in the May elections, received an 86 percent approval and 86 percent trust rating in the same survey.
The Senate as an institution received a 58 percent and 57 percent performance and trust rating, respectively, for the same period.