A little less than two years after becoming president, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte remains popular with Filipinos.
According to the latest nationwide survey by polling body Pulse Asia published yesterday, 80 percent of Filipinos still approve of Duterte while 82 percent said they still trust him. This makes the president the most trusted nationally-elected official currently in office.
READ: PH is 3rd happiest country in 2017
This data comes from a survey Pulse Asia conducted from Dec. 10-15 that held face-to-face interviews with 1,200 Filipinos aged 18 years old and above.
Duterte’s approval and trust ratings have been relatively stable. A similar survey held in September 2017 revealed both his approval and trust ratings were at 80 percent. In June 2017, they were at 82 percent and 81 percent respectively.
Duterte’s term has been full of controversies that have received international attention. The most popular is his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs that has allegedly taken the lives of 13,000 people, according to the latest numbers from human rights groups. However, the Philippine National Police (PNP) disputes this and says that the number is closer to 3,000.
In October 2017, Duterte temporarily removed the PNP as head of the war on drugs because of continued backlash, effectively suspending anti-illegal drug operations for the second time. He eventually made the PNP the lead agency again the next month.
But the latter part of 2017 also saw some positive highlights from the government including the passing of tax reforms that will provide citizens with higher take-home pay, and the improvement of the country’s credit rating.
READ: Survey: Filipinos experiencing more hunger but still optimistic about the future
Although Vice President Leni Robredo is ranked right under Duterte, her trust rating is 24 points lower than the president’s, at 58 percent.
Respondents were also asked to rate their trust for Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III who got 53 percent, Speaker of the House of Representatives Pantaleon Alvarez with 37 percent, and Supreme Court Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno who got 27 percent.
Duterte received more than 16.6 million votes when he ran in 2016, more than 6.6 million higher than Mar Roxas, his opponent with the second highest number of votes.
