Governance gone tepid
The new release by Social Weather Stations (SWS), titled “First Quarter Social Weather Report: Net Satisfaction for the Senate at +11, House of Representatives at +13, and the Supreme Court at +11” (www.sws.org.ph, 6/11/26), shows public sentiment for both houses of the national legislature and for the highest court, as of the March 24-31 field period, as rather ho-hum. The scores all scrape the bottom of the range from +10 to +29, that SWS calls “Moderate.”
The term Moderate means the net score is safely positive, given the statistical error margin; it is definitely above zero. It is like water that is on the warm side, but not hot enough to make a good cup of coffee; for SWS, “hot-enough” calls for a score of at least +30.
In late May was the SWS report, “Net satisfaction rating for Vice-President Duterte at +29, Senate President Sotto at +15, Speaker Dy at +4, and Chief Justice Gesmundo at +9” (5/30/26), that likewise showed Moderate scores for the Vice President and the Senate President, but only “Neutral” (from -9 to +9, i.e., only single-digit, and not distinguishable from zero) scores for the speaker and the Chief Justice.
The week before was the SWS report, “Net satisfaction with President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. falls from -3 in November 2025 to -15 in March 2026” (5/26/26), which showed President Marcos at his record lowest score—lower, in fact, than any previous president, except for Gloria Arroyo. It had fallen from Neutral to “Poor,” where the latter ranges from -10 to -29. Thus, Poor is the negative counterpart of the positive Moderate.
The other SWS descriptions for its ratings are “Good,” starting at +30, “Very Good,” starting at +50, and Excellent, starting at +70. The counterpart negative terms are “Bad,” starting at -30, “Very Bad,” starting at -50, and “Execrable,” starting at -70. Each term occupies a 20-point band, by design.
In the 40-year history of the SWS surveys of satisfaction with high officials, the scores of all presidents (except one) started out Very Good—showing a honeymoon with the public, then fell gradually, to Good, and then fell some more. If a score is at least +30, we consider the honeymoon as ongoing.
The honeymoon lengths have varied. The presidential honeymoon of Corazon Aquino lasted three and one-fourth years. The durations of other honeymoons were: Fidel Ramos, two and one-fourth years; Joseph Estrada, only three-fourth of a year; Gloria Arroyo, no honeymoon; Benigno Aquino III, three and three-fourth years; Rodrigo Duterte, five and one-fourth years (except that COVID-year 2020 had a survey only in the last quarter); and Ferdinand Marcos Jr., one and one-fourth year.
The net satisfaction ratings change over time. Today’s piece says the quality of governance has gone tepid, by comparing the three most recent survey reports (not just the latest one), with the four reports immediately before them.
In the most recent SWS surveys of September 2025, November 2025, and March 2026, the net satisfaction scores of the Senate were +8, +14, and +11, respectively, i.e., a Neutral followed by two relatively low Moderates. Yet, in the previous four surveys (September 2024, December 2024, April 2025, and June 2025), its net scores had been +49, +44, +25, and +42, i.e., two Goods, a mid-Moderate, and then Good again. There was a very significant change in public opinion precisely between June 2025 (Good +42) and September 2025 (Neutral +8)
For the House of Representatives, the last three net scores were +6, +14, and +13, from September 2025 to March 2026. The previous four scores, from September 2024 to June 2025, were +42, +36, +17, and +42. In the case of the Supreme Court, its last three nets were +11, +17, and +11, from September 2025 to March 2026, all barely Moderate. On the other hand, its previous four scores, from September 2024 to June 2025, were +42, +40, +21, and +41.
As for the President, his last seven scores, contemporaneous with those of the three major institutions, were: September 2024, +32; December 2024, +19; April 2025, -10; June 2025, +10; September 2025, -5; November 2025, -3; and March 2026, -15. In sequence, they are: Good-Moderate-Poor-Moderate-Neutral-Neutral-Poor.
The time-patterns of the scores of the Senate, House, and Supreme Court are similar: public satisfaction with these institutions dropped the most between June and September of 2025. It was the time of legislative hearings on anomalous flood control projects, the Trillion Peso March at Edsa (Sept. 21) and other mass demonstrations, the leadership shakeups at the Senate and the House, the voiding by the Supreme Court of the first impeachment complaint against VP Duterte (July 25), topped off by the State of the Nation Address (July 28), where Mr. Marcos said, “Mahiya naman kayo…” (see “Can shaming stop corruption?” inquirer.net, 8/2/25).
Were those events also the people’s main concerns? The polls are too few to identify specific reasons for movements in popular sentiments toward the government. What is clear is the sense of too much delay and too little action.
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