DAVAO City's key leaders and officials from various sectors in the community unanimously said the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) "very good" public net satisfaction rating earned by President Rodrigo Duterte for his first three months in service is "expected."
SWS, an independent poll, released Thursday, October 6, that President Duterte yielded a "very good" net satisfaction rating of plus 64 and the approval of 76 percent for his first three months in service, while only 11 and 13 percent were dissatisfied and undecided about his performance, respectively.
City Councilor Bernard Al-Ag, in a phone interview with SunStar Davao Thursday, said Duterte's active and strong political will have made categorical changes in the country in a short span of time.
"Personally, I agree with the results of the ratings because he has done a lot of things in a short period of time. Airport buses have been installed, there is no "laglag bala" scam anymore and some services in the government have already delivered to the public clientele on time," Al-ag said.
Al-ag added the reduction of red tape helped a lot in making the country's ease of doing business better.
"Also, his deep concern on drugs and corruption have yielded good results (despite critics)," Al-ag said.
"With all the achievements, changes and almost 1 million people who surrendered for drug related crimes; I am not surprised with the high satisfaction ratings of our President," Amites Butiong, Chief Probation Officer of Davao City Parole Probation Office-1, said.
The positive rating of President Duterte is a reflection of the paradigm shift in governance desired by majority of our people.
Duterte's non-conventional way of leading the government to achieve the desired targets or results is supported by the Filipinos.
"Our people also reached a certain level of political maturity that they are now ready to veer away from traditional politics. Using this political capital: the president should now focus on strengthening the economic and financial infrastructure of the country," said Joji Ilagan-Bian, founding president of the Philippine Call Center & Outsourcing Alliance.
City Health office head Mary Joselle Villafuerte, for her part, said the survey is no longer surprising.
"Of course there is no doubt that the President would get a very high SWS survey rating because in the first 100 days, he has been striving to fulfill all his campaign promises," Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte cited the President's achievements such as the end of "tanim bala" scheme, the 800,000 drug surrenderees, the Duterte health agenda is also being implemented by the DOH, assistance to the stranded OFWs and the faster transaction in most of the government agencies.
"We are very happy and satisfied, as someone who supported and campaigned for him, we will continue to help him achieve all his plans for the nation," Villafuerte added.
Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, said in a statement the rating shows clear picture that most of the Filipinos approved Duterte's performance for the first 100 days of office.
"This is not surprising at all as the President was overwhelmingly elected in the May polls on the strength of his platform of "tunay na pagbabago" or real change anchored on strong anti-drugs, anti-crime and anti-corruption agenda," Andanar said.
But Andanar underscored that while the past three months performance is exemplary, this is not the time for complacency.
"There is much work to be done not only in eliminating the scourge of illegal drugs and crime, but also in fighting poverty and improving the lives of the underprivileged and the powerless," Andanar said.
Andanar added in achieving the administration's end goal of attaining peace and prosperity, the people's participation is strongly needed.
The latest survey, conducted September 24 to September 27, has a total of 1,200 adult respondents.
The survey has a +-3 percent error margin. (ASP with KVC and JCR)