Palace thanks Filipinos for giving Duterte high marks in SWS survey

January 1, 2019

Malacanang expressed gratitude towards Filipinos over Monday's Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey which showed 92 percent of Filipinos enter 2019 with hope.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said, in a statement, that the government is thankful for the Filipinos' optimism under President Rodrigo Duterte's administration. He also cited the ineffective protests of government's critics against the Filipinos' universal hopefulness.

"This proves that the demolition job and the climate of negativity depicted by the President's critics and detractors, better described as the noisy majority, have little or no impact to the silent but much greater majority," Panelo said.

Panelo said the country's "solid and robust" macroeconomic fundamentals are one of the reasons for Filipinos to celebrate. According to him, this is in addition to Duterte administration's "Build, Build, Build" program and the decline in crime rate in the country.

"Indeed, there is much to celebrate. There is construction everywhere in the National Capital Region with the President's Build-Build-Build program already in its implementation stage. Crime rate is down and people now feel safer," the presidential spokesperson said.

As 2019 enters, Panelo assures the FIlipinos especially the administration's critics that  the results of the programs by the government will be beneficial. 

"We remain confident that our people will continue to rally behind the government towards genuine change and prosperity. We could only wish that skeptics finally see the good in the persistent efforts of the President for our nation, given that the results of which will not solely benefit his supporters but the entire Filipino community, including them," Panelo said. 

The SWS survey released on December 31 also reported that there was a significant decline in "New Year hope" among Filipinos in all socio-economic classes, with 90 percent for the year 2018. Cristina Eloisa Baclig/DMS