President Duterte approval rating rises to 72%, recent Pulse Asia survey shows

Chief executive garners high marks across classes

(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte’s approval rating rose to 72%, making the chief executive the country’s ranking national official with the best performance this December, results of a recent Pulse Asia survey showed.

President Duterte’s approval rating registered in the survey conducted from December 1 to 6 was an increase of 8 percentage points from the 64% approval rating he posted in September.

Of the total 2400 respondents interviewed face-to-face, only 17% were undecided, while 11% disapproved of his performance.

President Duterte’s performance ratings were relatively high across locations and classes.

In Metro Manila, he received a 72% rating, in other parts of Luzon a 62% rating, in Visayas a 64% rating, and in Mindanao, a 97% rating.

Members of Classes ABC gave him a rating of 71%, Class D a rating of 72%, and Class E a rating of 76%.

Of the top national officials included in the survey, Senate President Tito Sotto was in second place, with a 71% approval rating, and a 7% disapproval rating.

Twenty-two percent were undecided.

Meanwhile, Vice President Leni Robredo was in third place, with a 43% approval rating, 23% undecided and a 34% disapproval rating.

All three, Duterte, Robredo, and Sotto, had an awareness rating of 100%.

Tied in fourth place were Speaker Lord Allan Velasco and Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, with a 31% approval rating each.

Around 52% were undecided about Velasco’s performance, while 17% disapproved.

Fifty percent were undecided about the Chief Justice’s performance, while 18% disapproved.

The Speaker garnered a 64% awareness rating, while the Chief Justice received a rating of 56%.

Among the salient developments when the survey was conducted were Sara Duterte’s withdrawal of her  certificate of candidacy for Davao mayor and her filing of COC for the vice presidential post under the Lakas-CMD party; President Duterte’s allegation about a presidential candidate using cocaine; and the filing of two more petitions for disqualification against former Senator Bongbong Marcos, who at that time had already filed his COC for president.

According to Pulse Asia, the survey has a ± 2% error margin at the 95% confidence level.