Enrile attributes drop in ratings to Senate funds mess

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile acknowledged Wednesday that his decision to exclude critics from the list of recipients of additional funds last December hurt his approval ratings based on the survey released by Pulse Asia.

Among the country's top officials, from President Benigno Aquino III to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, the Senate leader recorded the steepest decline of 27 percentage points (+46 in January 2013 from +73 in November 2012). 

The survey on 1,800 respondents took place from January 19 to 30 or during the time when senators debated on Enrile's alleged unfair distribution of funds to senators and lack of stricter ways to track expenses under the maintenance and other operating expenses (MOEE).

"In the case of MOOE, I have to give also some degree of preference to the members of my majority. So why should this be something unusual?" he said in an interview in Bohol, where senatorial candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) had a campaign rally.

Enrile, an UNA stalwart, likened a public official's popularity to an ice cream. 

"I think in my almost 50 years now in public service, popularity or acceptability or public opinion is like an ice cream. Sometimes, it's solidified...In many instances that I've gone through where perhaps the appreciation of the people has gone down. But who knows it might rise again in the morning," he said. 

Enrile's companion in Bohol, Vice President Jejomar Binay, also suffered a lower approval rating of 69 percent from 82 percent three months ago. His disapproval ratings slightly rose from three percent to five percent.

"That maybe was a result of issues being confronted by our countrymen. Anyway, we just have to work hard to earn the people's trust," he said. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)