Despite his regular tirades and his administration’s alleged human rights violations, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte continues to enjoy high approval ratings from Filipinos, according to Pulse Asia’s survey which was released today.
In fact, Duterte earned the highest approval rating among the government officials polled, which included Vice President Leni Robredo, Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Duterte came out on top with an 81 percent approval rating, far higher than Sotto’s 74 percent.
Duterte did well in all regions with his highest performance rating (96 percent) coming from Mindanao, where his hometown Davao City is located. He was also rated highly in all social classes with classes A, B, and C giving him the highest performance rating of 87 percent.
The president’s high-performance rating comes despite his controversial remarks against the Catholic Church, which has become one of his favorite topics as of late.
This includes the comment that saints are “fools” and “drunkards.” He also said that Filipinos should worship him instead.
Vice President Robredo, who is part of the opposition Liberal Party, was at a far third with a 62 percent approval rating.
Arroyo, a former president who was jailed for plunder, received a minuscule approval rating of 27 percent.
Duterte was also the most trusted among national government officials, with 76 percent of respondents saying he earned their trust. No surprises here, but the president earned the highest trust rating in Mindanao, where he got 91 percent. Filipinos belonging to class E gave him the highest trust rating of 82 percent.
Sotto was trusted by 66 percent of the respondents, followed by Robredo who was trusted by 56 percent.
Again, Arroyo did not fare well in this category. Forty-five percent of the respondents said they had little trust or do not trust her at all.
The survey was based on the results of face-to-face interviews conducted nationwide from Dec. 14 to 21. The study had a total of 1,800 respondents who were aged 18 years old and above.
