Ledesma: Duterte must have done something good

I DO not know how the anti-Duterte wrecking crew is going to take these recent developments. The Social Weather Station came out with a three-month survey indicating President Rodrigo R. Duterte has sustained his “very good” satisfaction rating even with a decline of two percent. This came on the heels of the President’s trip to Boao, Hainan China, where he had a special bilateral meeting with newly-elected President Xi Jinping. In that meeting President Xi announced a P3.8 economic aid to the Philippines.

It will be a summer of despair on the part of the rabid critics of President Duterte. Let’s face it. Their protege VP Leni Robredo went West to deliver a speech before the London School of Economics and Politics on poverty alleviation and the role of politicians in economic growth. I'm sorry for that institution. Whoever assured them that Robredo is an expert on those subjects must be nuts. I do not wish to denigrate the Vice President but she should have politely declined the invitation because none of those is part of her expertise. Anyway, she succeeded in having photo ops but she came home, as a Facebook commentator noticed, with a designer bag.

Duterte, on the other hand, traveled a short distance to the East delivered the shortest speech (8 minutes) I heard so far from him and that bagged P3.8-billion financial aid, a separate package to upgrade government TV and radio broadcasting network, and business investment pledges of around $9-billion dollars.

Any which way you look at these developments only spells bonanza, a healthy political and economic relationship between China and the Philippines. The irritant that the previous administration created in the west Philippine sea may yet be an example of how flash points can be resolved and and transformed into a partnerships and joint undertakings that would benefit both countries. This should give Robredo her 101 lesson on the role of politicians on the economy.

But what should really massage the ego of President Duterte is the significant and meaningful results of the SWS survey. The upper crust of society (ABC) gave him a “very good” grade while the middle class which include the masa remains to be strongly supportive of him which to me is the most important data here. The lower strata gave him a grade of 35 in September but turned around in December with a whopping 65% although it declined in March with 48% or a satisfaction rating of “good”.

The graduating students are even more ebullient despite some segment among students that enjoy scholarships in the Philippine University Campus. If these students know their statistics 48 in September, 69 in December and March should make them rethink their alliance with the leftists and political opposition. Mindanao gave Duterte an excellent satisfaction grade. I don’t know where to place the opposition and critics’ description of Mindanao as a region where, according to them, violence and suppression pervade on account of the declaration of Martial Law in the area.

Whatever it is worth now, since the Philippines had withdrawn from the International Criminal Court, these indubitable data should argue against what the salivating political oppositions and the ludicrous alliance of the religious sector and the CPP/NPA had conjured against President Duterte. They can rant but it is obvious now that nobody listens except themselves.

As the song goes, “(Duterte) must have done something good”.