By Robina Asido

The approval and trust rating of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. significantly dropped by 17 percentage point while the public distrust and disapproval rose to at least 20 percentage points due to the handling of economic issues and following the arrest and surrender of former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, a Pulse Asia survey said on Wednesday.

In its March survey, Pulse Asia said: "Marcos's approval rating falls by 17 percentage points, while his disapproval rating goes up by 21 points from February to March".

It also shows that the trust rating of the president "declines significantly from 42 percent to 25 percent, while his distrust rating rises by 22 percent with an average of 32 percent in February to 54 percent in March.

The survey noted that Vice President Sara Duterte is the only top official who experienced an improvement in her performance ratings, rising from 52 percent in February to 59 percent in March and an improvement in trust ratings with her score increasing by eight percentage points from 53 percent in February to 61 percent in March.

It shows that the majority of the respondents disapproved of the administration's efforts to control inflation, fight graft and corruption, poverty reduction and increase workers pay.

Aside from the public's dissatisfaction in the government's effort to address inflation, corruption, low salary and poverty, Pulse Asia Research Inc. President Ronald Holmes said low approval and trust rating of Marcos was also affected by the arrest of the former president.

Yes, definitely the recent events have an impact. The events that have transpired prior to the survey, the chief, is the arrest of the former president, and his swift dispatch to The Hague. So definitely, that has an impact in terms of the approval and trust ratings of both the President and the Vice President," he said in a broadcast interview.

Holmes also noted that it is the first time that the disapproval rating of an administration hit about 70 percent because of its poor performance in controlling inflation.

"The appreciation of the national administration's performance in addressing the most urgent concerns. We have been tracking this for the last 25 years. And you know, it's under this administration that we saw for the first time. I think it was still September 2023 when disapproval in terms of the attending to high prices of commodities hit about 70 percent," he said.

"Since September 2023, the disapproval is already at 73 percent, so it has become 79 percent, basically it continues from what we registered almost two years ago. So in a sense, there's really declining appreciation of the national administration, and eventually, who will be held accountable for the performance of the national administration. The buck stops with the President right now," he added.DMS