Malacanang said on Friday that the latest survey showing the improvement of lives of 38 percent of Filipinos was another "loud repudiation" against the detractors of the Duterte administration.

The first quarter 2019 Social Weather Survey said 38 percent of adult Filipinos have said their lives improved, while 21 percent said their lives worsened in the last 12 months or "net gainers" score of +17.

"The Net Gainers score continues to improve for two quarters in a row after dropping to -2 (fair) in September 2018. It went up to +12 (very high) in December 2018 and up again to +17 (very high) in March 2019," said SWS, which conducted the survey using face-to-face interviews among 1,440 adults on March 28-31.

"This is yet another loud repudiation against - and yet another wake-up call to - the critics and detractors of the Duterte administration, which include the Left-leaning groups, militant Church members and the political opposition, who continuously and deliberately ignore our achievements which redound to the benefit of the Filipino masses," said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo in a statement.

He said the survey results emphasized that people see and appreciate the President's "tireless efforts" to improve and bring about genuine and positive change to the nation.

Panelo, also chief presidential legal counsel, expressed more optimism for the Filipinos as majority of the winning candidates in the last elections are administration allies.

"With a great majority of administration candidates overwhelmingly voted by our people to continue supporting the advocacies of the President, the current government, fueled by the optimism of the Filipino people, would work double time to improve the significant gains of the past three years during the remainder of PRRD's (Duterte) term as Chief Executive," he said. Celerina Monte/DMS