It would normally take just hours for Malacañang to issue a statement on the findings of a survey conveying the people’s trust and satisfaction on President Duterte. However, when the latest survey showed that the President’s ratings plunged, it took Palace factotums one long day before making a statement on it.
Presidential Spokesman Ernesto C. Abella would later say that the drop in ratings is acceptable, as the “honeymoon period” between the President and the people is over. “This is a question of managing expectations,” Abella said in a news briefing on Monday.
“That some people during this particular honeymoon period, their expectations were high, and the actual wait for the implementation of these things may have led to the dip. However, people are, in general, still satisfied,” Abella stressed.
Abella also said Duterte “is not running a popularity contest” because his major focus “is being able to set the clear foundations for what he calls a comfortable life for all.”
The ‘sway’
The President’s spokesman noted that the survey was conducted within a period of when a series of protests was conducted by critics of the administration, suggesting the demonstrations might have swayed public mood.
Instead of mainly shoving off the results of the survey, the Chief Executive listens to the clamor of the people, Abella said. He added the drop in ratings should also send a wakeup call to key officials of the administration to deliver the reforms the President had promised.
“In other words, there was a dip, and that’s to be appreciated. That’s certainly a challenge to the government in order to be able to deliver the full range, the full spectrum of public services,” Abella said.
Nonetheless, Abella said “the love is still there” between the President and the people.
Sympathy
Duterte also received sympathy from former President and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of the Second District of Pampanga, who, in her term as President, suffered heavily and lengthily from negative trust and satisfaction ratings.
Arroyo said the more important thing for the President is to focus on the projects and programs of the administration because, in the end, it is the legacy that will matter, not the popularity. “The job of a President is not to make popular decisions,” Arroyo said in a news statement issued on Monday.
“I had to endure this process myself when I made tough and unpopular decisions that ultimately redounded to the common good,” Arroyo added, referring to the time when her reputation was tainted by a barrage of controversies one after the other.
She said the rise and drop in ratings is simply “part of the territory”.
“It reflects the pulse of the people at a particular time. A drop, though, does not mean erosion of public support, but merely a sentiment on particular policies,” Arroyo told the President.
Seeing the light
However, if administration critics are to be asked, the drastic drop in Duterte’s trust and satisfaction numbers is but signifiers that more and more Filipinos are now “beginning to see the light.”
Sen. Antonio F. Trillanes IV, for one, said the drop in ratings is a result of the climate of fear created by the war on drugs, which has allegedly claimed thousands of lives. As the war on drugs carries on, the senator said, he expects the numbers to continue to climb and “to be worse” in the months to come.
“It’s very encouraging to know that the Filipino people are beginning to see the light. They are now seeing Duterte for who he really is: a lying, rude, amoral, corrupt and oppressive former mayor who is totally incompetent about governance at the national level,” Trillanes said in a news statement on Monday.
“Worse, his bloody war on drugs has killed thousands of his own people and created a climate of fear across the country,” Trillanes added.
Young casualties
On the other hand, Sen. Paolo Benigno A. Aquino IV and Francis G. Escudero told the Chief Executive to take the drop in ratings as a wake-up call to rethink some of the administration’s major policies.
“So, putting it together, this should not be taken for granted by Malacañang and the President. [It should be taken as] a wake-up call to revise our war on drugs, reform the strategy, as well as street killings,” Aquino said in an interview on Monday.
“If you look at the month of the survey period, it was the time there were several cases being investigated involving young victims who should not have been killed. So, if you compare that with the survey affirming widespread concern over the wave of killings and their nagging doubts over its legitimacy, I think it is a wake-up call…that it is time to revise the strategy in waging the drug war,” Aquino added.
“The administration should take it as a wake-up call and, hopefully, be less nonchalant, arrogant and cavalier, especially on the part of some Cabinet and police officials. It’s a reminder to sitting officials that nothing is permanent, everything is fleeting and will come to an end soon enough, whether it’s survey numbers or their incumbency,” Escudero said in a text message to reporters on Monday.
The President might appear as a juggernaut since his rise to power in 2016, but, as pointed out by Escudero, “everything is fleeting and will come to an end soon enough”—even the once soaring ratings of Duterte.
Image credits: AP/Bullit Marquez