Sharp increases in fuel prices that
inevitably push up the cost of living may have pulled down public satisfaction
with the performance of Philippine President Benigno Aquino III from “very
good” to “good,” a lawmaker and a labour leader said Monday.
Eastern
Samar Representative Ben Evardone said the past quarter saw a series of fuel
price increases that was beyond the control of the president, but the lawmaker
added the people did not want to accept any explanation justifying the spike.
"Of
course, people won’t accept the fact that prices of oil are being dictated by
international market forces. So this can be the main reason for the drop,”
Evardone said.
Except
among the upper and middle classes, public satisfaction with Aquino’s
performance dipped in the D and E socioeconomic groups and across geographic
areas in the first quarter, according to results of a nationwide survey by
Social Weather Stations (SWS).
Net
public satisfaction (satisfied minus dissatisfied) with the president’s
performance dropped 9 points from a “very good” rating of 58 points (71 per
cent satisfied, 13 per cent dissatisfied) last December to a “good” 49 points
(68 per cent satisfied, 19 per cent dissatisfied) in March.
The
results of the survey, conducted from March 10 to 13, were first published in
BusinessWorld newspaper on Monday. It used face-to-face interviews with 1,200
adults and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for
national percentages and plus or minus 6 percentage points for area
percentages.
Governance
"Governance
should not be survey-driven,” Aquino told reporters after he inspected Holy
Week preparations at the Araneta Center bus terminal in Quezon City.
He said
his current ratings may have been affected by the moves taken by some groups to
make a big issue out of the recent oil price increases.
But the
president noted that prices of basic goods and commodities did not jump when
there were sharp increases in the global price of oil.
Kilusang
Mayo Uno (KMU), a militant labor group, said the dip in Aquino’s net satisfaction ratings was due to
his inaction over the people’s problems, such as the constant fuel price
increases and the continued rise in the prices of basic commodities.
A youth
group has dubbed this inaction “Noynoying,” a play on the president’s nickname.
Low wages, joblessness
"Despite
the spectacle of the impeachment trial (of Chief Justice Renato Corona), it
became clearer to the public that the president is not doing anything to
provide people with relief from the high prices of oil and basic goods and
services, low wages, joblessness and the demolition of poor communities,” KMU
chairman Elmer Labog said in a statement.
He said
the administration’s upbeat pronouncements over record highs in the stock
market, improved investor confidence and credit rating upgrades, would be for
naught unless it addressed hunger and poverty.
A
public that grows poorer and more hungry by the day would be unable to stomach
such claims, Labog added.
"In
the end, people will believe what they feel in their guts, in their stomachs,
more than what they are being told by the government,” he said.
Aquino
said people were seeing how the government was working for their benefit, “but
we also cannot avoid that sometimes those being interviewed in surveys were
people that we have not taken care of properly.”
No specific reasons
He said
governance should not come from surveys but from what was right against what
was wrong. “We will push for what is right,” the president said.
The
survey only covered public satisfaction and dissatisfaction and could not
explain specific reasons behind the responses given by respondents, Leo Laroza,
survey research and communication specialist at SWS, told the Philippine Daily
Inquirer in a phone interview.
Laroza
noted, however, that “Aquino’s net rating was pulled down largely by his net
rating in Luzon outside Manila, where he posted a 15-point drop.”
In
Luzon outside Metro Manila, the president’s rating slipped from a "very
good” 60 points (72 per cent satisfied, 12 per cent dissatisfied) last December
to a “good” 45 points (67 per cent satisfied, 21 per cent dissatisfied,
correctly rounded) in March.
Poor’s dissatisfaction
Laroza
also noted the president’s net satisfaction rating among Class D dropped 12
points from a “very good” 58 points (72
per cent satisfied, 13 per cent dissatisfied) last December to a “good” 46
points (67 per cent satisfied, 20 per cent dissatisfied) in March.
This
was Aquino’s second “good” net rating since he assumed office in June 2010,
according to SWS data. He got his first “good” net rating of 46 points in June 2011.
Since
he assumed office, the president had posted mostly “very good” net ratings,
getting his record high of 64 in November 2010.
For
whom
The
respondents were also asked whether they thought the president was “serving the
interests of the rich, middle class or the poor.” They were allowed to give
multiple responses.
Among
those who said they were satisfied with Aquino, 78 per cent viewed him as
serving the poor. This was followed by those who viewed him as serving the
middle class (69 per cent) and the rich (61 per cent).
Among
those who were dissatisfied with the president’s performance, 28 per cent said
they viewed the president to be serving the rich, followed by those who thought
he was serving the middle class (17 per cent) and the poor (14 per cent).
Aquino’s
net satisfaction rating statistically remained unchanged among Class ABC, where
it was up by one point from a “very good” 61 points last December to 62 points
in March.
Those
who said the president served the poor sharply declined by 13 points to 35 per
cent in March.
Those
who said he was serving the rich increased by 4 points to 27 percent.
Drop
expected
Evardone
said the drop in the president’s satisfaction rating was expected as most
leaders had suffered the same fate as they approached the second half of their
terms.
Still,
the lawmaker said the president’s 49-point rating was still very high compared with
the ratings of his predecessors.
He said
Aquino should continue to capitalise on this to introduce unpopular but
necessary structural reforms.
Christine
O. AvendaƱo and Lawrence de Guzman
Philippine
Daily Inquirer
With
reports from Cynthia D. Balana and Leila B. Salaverria
Business & Investment Opportunities
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