FORMER President Benigno S. C. Aquino III stepped down last week with a net public satisfaction rating that was half what he started with in 2010, but that finish was still the best among presidents covered by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) so far.
Mr. Aquino’s final quarter in office got a significant boost from Metro Manila and Mindanao that offset a fall in the Visayas.
Sought for comment, University of Santo Tomas political science professor Edmund S. Tayao said that “normally, if the President is outgoing, he gets positive ratings except with GMA (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo).”
“People normally tend to be generous in assessing an outgoing President... but it cannot be interpreted that they are necessarily satisfied with the President,” he added.
Mr. Tayao also noted that Mr. Aquino “remained supportive of the peace process in Mindanao,” hence, the improvement in satisfaction on that island.
The survey -- conducted June 24-27 among 1,200 adults nationwide and with sampling error margins of ±3 points for national percentages and ±6 points each for Metro Manila, “Balance Luzon,” the Visayas and Mindanao -- found that Mr. Aquino’s net satisfaction rating (the difference between the percentage of satisfied and unsatisfied respondents) finished at “moderate” +29 (57% satisfied, 28% dissatisfied) up just two percentage points from April’s “moderate” +27.
Mr. Aquino’s final rating compares to the “very good” +60 he got in September 2010 after taking office in June that year, and topped the closing net scores of his predecessors, namely: Ms. Arroyo’s “poor” -17, Joseph E. Estrada’s “neutral” +9, Fidel V. Ramos’s “moderate” +19 and even that of his mother, Corazon C. Aquino, who finished with a “neutral” +7.
SWS classifies net satisfaction scores of at least +70 as “excellent”; +50 to +69 as “very good”; +30 to +49, “good”; +10 to +29, “moderate”, +9 to -9, “neutral”; -10 to -29, “poor”; -30 to -49, “bad”; -50 to -69, “very bad”; as well as -70 and below, “execrable.”
Mr. Aquino got his best net satisfaction score in August 2012 -- a “very good” + 67 -- while his worst was the “moderate” +11 in March 2015 in the wake of the January counter-terrorism raid in Maguindanao that killed 44 cops, more than 20 rebels and a few civilians and which jeopardized peace with the biggest Moro rebel group.
The two-point quarter-on-quarter rise in June’s net score was due to gains of 13 points from April’s zero in Metro Manila and 12 points to +42 in Mindanao that added to Balance Luzon’s steady +23 and offset a 12-point drop to +38 in the Visayas.
By social class, net scores dropped seven points but stayed “moderate” at +10 among “ABC” respondents, gained five points and a grade to “good” at +30 in “D” as well as fell eight points and one grade to “moderate” at +28 among those belonging to the “E” class. --Raynan F. Javil
source: Businessworld
