Palace unfazed by slight drop in Aquino’s approval, trust ratings

MANILA -- Malacañang on Tuesday remained unfazed by the slight drop in the approval and trust ratings of President Benigno Aquino III, saying the results were influenced by issues happening at the time when the survey was conducted.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said the issues concerning the government, such as, the shootout in Atimonan, Quezon, the grounding of USS Guardian at Tubbataha Reef, and increasing number of reports in criminality have affected the ratings of the President.

Aquino's approval rating dropped from +78 percent in November to +66 percent in the January survey of independent firm Pulse Asia.

Lacierda noted that disapproval rating of the President remained unchanged at six percent.

"I think it's indicative of the times when the survey was taken and hence, you see a certain drop of the survey results. Interesting, however, that if you look at the survey itself, the disapproval rating of the President remained zero, unchanged. A number of them went to undecided, which is also significant to note," he said.

He likewise noted that Aquino was not the only one affected by the drop but also the four other top officials in government.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile suffered the biggest decline in approval rating from +73 percent in November to +46 percent in January.

"The plurality sentiment with regard to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile's performance is one of appreciation (46 percent)," the survey said, adding the Senate's trust rating was at +48 from +61 last November.

The internal squabble at the Senate over alleged unfair distribution of funds by Enrile to his colleagues was seen to have affected the survey results.

Conducted from January 19 to 30, 2013 involving 1,800 respondents, it was during this period when Enrile threatened to quit his post to end speculations that he was bribing senators with P1.6 million additional funds to keep him as Senate President.

Enrile's attempt, however, was nipped by 11 senators even as staunch critic Senator Antonio Trillanes IV promised that the Senate leader will still be ousted. Trillanes is one of the four senators critical of Enrile who did not receive extra money for maintenance and other operating expenses last December.

Senators had already turned over documents regarding their use of funds from 2009 to 2012 to the Commission on Audit (COA) while letting go the practice of issuing certifications to liquidate money allotted for MOOE.

Meanwhile, Vice President Jejomar Binay's approval rating also declined from +82 percent to +69 percent. His disapproval ratings slightly rose from three percent to five percent.

House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and Supreme Court Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno also suffered significant declines with 18 percentage point drop for Belmonte (+46 percent to +28 percent) and 14 points decline for Sereno (+38 percent to +24 percent).

The trust ratings of the top five officials also dropped.

Aquino's trust rating declined from +80 percent to +68 percent while Binay's rating went down from +81 percent to +71 percent.

Enrile again got the biggest trust rating change with a drop of 21 points from +67 percent to +46 percent.

Belmonte and Sereno, on the other hand, got +28 percent and +24 percent trust ratings, respectively.

The survey, which has a sample of 1,800 registered voters, has a margin of error of ± 2 percent at 95 percent confidence level. (Jill Beltran/Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)