Because of a car

BECAUSE OF a fast car, President Benigno Aquino III is beginning to slide downhill. This is what most recent opinion poll surveys are telling us.

Last March 12, on-line news from the automobile industry reported that the German car maker Porsche has opened the order books for its fuel-efficient car, 918 Spyder, which will cost $1 million. The car won’t go into production until late 2013. Porsche will build only 918 units of the Spyder, which will be left-hand drive only. Wealthy customers, according to the news report, can place orders now for use on race track, which is not an impediment for spoiled brats of wealthy Filipinos who can use the stretch of highway to Central Luzon, passing through Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac, the ancestral manor of the Aquino-Cojuangco family, one of the largest landholding estates in the country, despite the agrarian reform legislation breaking up landed estates into smaller units for redistribution to tillers of their farms.

President Aquino, who owns a Porsche of an older vintage, can still wait for some time to catch up with this fuel-efficient model, whenever he feels like swapping his old car, with a newer model. There’s no doubt he can afford the new one, using his own money, not taxpayers’ money.  His honesty when it comes to money is beyond reproach.

What should be bothering the President, who is not yet one year in office, is that his satisfaction ratings in the public opinion surveys are starting to fall.  A survey by the Social Weather Stations conducted from March 4 to 7 has found that his net satisfaction rating took a steep drop, from plus 64 in November last year to plus 51 in early March—a 13-point slump in just five months.  The survey found that 69 percent of respondents nationwide said they were satisfied,  but 18 percent said they were dissatisfied with the President, resulting in the new satisfaction rating of plus 51.

SWS blamed the President’s acquisition of the Porsche for the drop in his ratings.  SWS asked its respondents to react to the following statement:  “President Aquino’s purchase of an expensive car such as a Porsche, even through his own money, is not a good example for a president of a country like the Philippines.”  The President bought a second hand white 2007 Porsche last Christmas. He said he sold his old BMW (also an up-market car) and took out a personal loan to buy the Porsche.

What should worry Mr. Aquino is the finding that nearly half of the respondents or 48 percent agreed that he was not setting a good example with his purchase. Thirty-three percent disagreed, and 19 percent were undecided.

The survey did not cite other factors that might have combined to bring down the President’s ratings. Nothing was mentioned about the bloody outcome of the failed attempt to rescue a group of tourists from Hong Kong held hostage by a disgruntled policeman. The administration was severely criticized for its inept handling of the rescue.

Communications Secretary Ricky Carandang, who appears to be earning his keep after months of discord among three presidential mouthpieces, gave his own spin to the fall in the President’s rating.  He said the rating indicated the need for the administration to ensure that its reforms (which reforms, he didn’t identify) would show results “sooner than later.” Where on earth can you produce “results” when there’s no concrete reform program in place? There’s no hint of such a program in the President’s State of the Nation Address last year.

Carandang said the decline was “natural”   because the rating of a leader would “normally” drop around this time after the euphoria of the elections.

That’s somewhat true, but the drop of 13 points is not normal. It is a steep plunge that could prove irreversible avalanche unless its causes are honestly recognized and determined.

Carandang consoled himself, and tried to console the President, by pointing out, “We note that there is still  a significant number of the public  that supports the President, but … we will take this as an opportunity to remind  ourselves that the public wants to see the results of our reforms sooner rather than later.”

Asked about the issue of the Porsche, Carandang said that survey showed that “half of those surveyed thought it was an issue, and half of them thought it was not.”

Malacañang would better be advised to think what message the survey is sending to the administration. It would be interesting if SWS would conduct a survey on whether the public approves or disapproves of the relentless bashing and demonizing of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ahead of her impeachment trial in Senate. It might be asked whether the campaign to convict Gutierrez in public opinion is backfiring or is helpful in neutralizing the Porsche affair, which pictures him as spoiled scion of a rich family with a taste for expensive toys.

It must be galling for the President to note that the latest Pulse Asia survey showed Vice President Jejomar Binay to be  the “most trusted” national government official. Binay was also found to have the highest approval rating among all government officials.

In the survey conducted from Feb. 24 to March 8, the President’s approval declined from 79 to 74 —a slight drop but still a decline.

Among the respondents nationwide 81 percent said they trusted Binay, up from 78 percent in October 2010. The President’s rating declined from 80 to 75 percent over the past five months.