Wake-up call

Public satisfaction with the performance of the Aquino administration took a dive with the D and E socioeconomic groups, the poor and poorest in the country, in the first quarter of 2012, according to latest opinion polls.

A nationwide survey of Social Weather Stations conducted on March 10-13 found that net public satisfaction with President Aquino’s net performance dropped 9 points from  a “very good” rating of 58 points (71 percent satisfied, 13 percent dissatisfied) last December to a “good” 49 points (68 percent satisfied, 19 percent dissatisfied) in March.

This was the second “good” net rating dip since the President took office in June 2010. Since assuming office, he had posted mostly “very good” ratings, getting his record high of 64 in November 2010.

The March survey results are a warning shot across the bow that since mid-2010, his satisfaction rating has been on the slide. The results came in the midst of rising criticism of the poor performance of the economy, that has been given secondary priority to the administration’s political objective—i.e, prosecution of officials of the previous administration accused of corrupt practices, and proving his claim of incorruptibility.

The March survey has shaken the administration and exposed the regions and the socioeconomic classes in which public satisfaction has been eroding. A staff member of SWS, Leo Laroza, noted that the President’s net rating was pulled down largely by his net rating in Luzon outside Manila, where he posted a 15-point drop, bigger than the 9-point dip across the country.  In Luzon, outside Metro Manila, the President’s rating slipped from  a “very good” 60 points in December to a “good” 45 points in March.

More telling and socially significant were the results among Class D (the poor). SWS noted that the President’s net satisfaction rating among Class D dropped 12 points from a “very good” 58 points last December to a “good” 46 points in March.

Replies to questions put to the respondents were unsettling to the government and yielded clues on the administration’s social base. Respondents were asked whether they thought the President was  “serving the  interests of the rich, middle class or the poor.” Among those who said they were satisfied with the President, 78 percent viewed him as serving the poor. This was followed by those who thought he was serving the middle class (69 percent) and the rich (61 percent).  This result somewhat reflects the perception that the real constituency of the  administration is the middle class, believed by sociologists as the base constituency of the 1986 People Power revolution, on whose back the President’s mother, Cory Aquino, rode to power in toppling the Marcos dictatorship. The Edsa revolution was an urban-based political movement driven and led by Metro Manila, mostly the middle class. If Mr. Aquino is to retain the support of the middle class that was his vehicle to election in 2010, he has to maintain its confidence, but at the same time he has to broaden his social base to include the poorer classes who are being left behind by the poor performance of the economy that has been neglected by his administration.

Among those who were dissatisfied with the President’s performance, 28 percent said they viewed him to be serving the rich, followed by those who thought he was serving the middle class (17 percent) and the poor (14 percent).

The President’s net satisfaction rating statistically remained unchanged among Class ABC, where it was up by one point from 61 points last December to 62 points in March. This class has fewer reasons to be disgruntled and less vulnerable to the vagaries of  economic dislocation.

Those who said the President served the poor sharply declined by 13 points to 35 percent in March. Those who said he was serving the rich increased by 4 points. The leftist Kilusang Mayo Uno blamed the dip in the President’s satisfaction ratings to inaction over the  problems of the poor, such as frequent fuel price increases and the rise in the prices of basic commodities.

The President dismissed the dip in his ratings, saying that it should be ignored and that governance “should  not be survey-driven.”

“Governance is about doing what is right, which sometimes entails some sacrifices, for the good of the people,” he said.

Before the March survey, Malacañang had been using the surveys on the President’s “very good” ratings to claim that he continued to enjoy support from the people in his anticorruption campaign despite his neglect of the economy. Now, he is changing his tune about the surveys.

He said his current ratings may have been affected by the moves taken by some groups to make a big issue of the recent oil  price increases. Malacañang also blamed the slide to the threat of transport strikes last month (a non-event). There has been an expression of discontent among transport workers to interfere in rolling back fuel prices.

The erosion of the President’s ratings is being watched in political quarters for its effect on the senator-judges in the impeachment trial of  Chief Justice Renato Corona. The trial is on recess until next month.

The recess has allowed the public to refocus its attention on economic issues, in which the administration’s  performance is not getting high marks.