Palace says Duterte’s transparency key to high survey ratings

July 18, 2019

Malacanang said they are not surprised on President Rodrigo Duterte’s being the most trusted government official since he is a transparent leader.

“Not surprising,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a press briefing on Thursday.

“It keeps on increasing, simply because the President is a very transparent leader. His political will shows in every measure or step he has undertaken; it shows how sincere he is, and the people are satisfied with his method of governance,” Panelo added.

He said the people keep on expressing their support to awaken critics from their slumber, that all the criticisms against Duterte relative to drugs vis-à-vis the West Philippine Sea and other issues of national interest are all wrong and has no basis.

Asked if Duterte can maintain this approval and satisfaction rating, Panelo said it will continue to go up especially when detractors and the opposition party keeps on predicting that it will go down.

“If you remember, I think two years ago, one of the senators who already left the Senate was predicting that the popularity of the President will go down. For every issue that is thrown at him with such negative force, the detractors and the opposition keep saying the rating will go down but the more they say that, the more it goes up,” he said.

“If that is not a powerful language to them, I don’t know what is not,” he added.

In the latest Pulse Asia survey, Duterte received the highest approval and trust ratings among Philippines' leading government officials. 

Released on Wednesday, Duterte received 85 percent trust and approval ratings.  Ella Dionisio