Duterte Satisfaction Rating Down 6 Points, But Still 'Very Good'

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has received a public satisfaction grade of +67 or a “very good” rating in a 3rd quarter survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS). The results were released on Nov. 6. The score is 6 points lower than the record high rating of +73, or excellent, from the previous poll taken in June of 2019.

The SWS uses a scale that runs from negative 70 (execrable or extremely bad) to positive 70 (excellent) with a -9 to +9 score considered as neutral or no opinion. Once the various categories are tallied the percentage of negative scores is subtracted from the positive scores to obtain the result.

The negative scores are assumed to be an absolute value to appease math purists who claim subtracting a negative number is an addition to the total. It is also possible to give scores of below negative 70 and over plus 70 adding to the possibility that outlier ratings, if not detected, could skew the results.

This latest SWS survey showed the president with a 77% satisfaction rating from adult Filipinos, with 11% of them giving him a neutral rating and 10% who were dissatisfied.

The survey question on public satisfaction of the government was. “[Translated into English] On the overall, how satisfied or dissatisfied are you with the present national administration? Are you very satisfied; somewhat satisfied; undecided if satisfied or not; somewhat dissatisfied; very dissatisfied?

Duterte fared well in Metro Manila, moving up from a “very good” net rating to “excellent”. He also maintained his excellent rating in the Visayas (the middle islands of the archipelago). He did drop a bit from +80 to +70 in the southern region of Mindanao but kept his grade of excellent by one point.

Out of 16 specific issues that were addressed in the SWS survey Duterte did best with helping the poor (+62), providing the information needed by the citizens to properly examine what the government is doing (+64) and on having clear policies (+53). His lowest scores were on defending Philippine sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea (+30), ensuring that no family will ever be hungry and have nothing to eat (+28) and fighting inflation (+5)

As many as 1,800 adults in various Philippine locations were interviewed face-to-face for the survey. The sampling error margins were plus or minus (±) 2.3% for national, ±4% each for Balance Luzon and Mindanao, and ±6% each for Metro Manila and the Visayas. SWS said the area population estimates were weighted by the Philippine Statistics Authority medium-population projections for 2019.

Critics worldwide continue to lambast the president over human rights abuses and appearing disheveled on the global stage. There are also concerns about the 74-year-old’s health but he continues to enjoy great support at home if the SWS survey is correct.