By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos
MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday vowed to work harder to uplift the lives of Filipinos, as he welcomed as “good news” the improvement in his public trust and approval scores.
In a media interview in Prague, Czech Republic on Friday night (Manila time), Marcos said he was glad to know that his public trust and approval ratings improved in the fourth quarter of 2023.
“So good, then we will keep going and work even harder than what we have been before,” he said.
Marcos expressed elation that his fellow Filipinos are beginning to appreciate the reforms his administration is undertaking to ensure their welfare.
He, however, clarified that he does not create policies based on survey results.
The Filipino people, he said, are starting to feel the actual effects of the structural and fundamental changes of his administration.
“It is good that because I’ve been talking about this, and since the changes that we wanted, that we’ve been making, have been very structural and fundamental changes. And by their very nature, such structural changes take time to trickle down,” Marcos said.
“And for people to feel the actual effects of what we are doing, and I’m just happy that we are beginning to get to that point where people are seeing the wisdom of some of the measures that we’ve undertaken, the policy changes that we’ve made, the legislations that we have requested from the Congress.”
The results of the Dec. 10-14, 2023 “Tugon ng Masa” survey of the OCTA Research Group showed that Marcos scored a 76 percent trust rating and a 71 percent approval rating.
Marcos’ trust score is 3 percentage points higher than the 73 percent recorded in Oct. 2023, while his approval rating is 6 percentage points higher compared to the third quarter’s 65 percent.
The Social Weather Stations (SWS) in its Dec. 8-11, 2023 survey, also found that 65 percent of adult Filipinos are satisfied with Marcos’ performance, while only 18 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
The SWS poll results showed that Marcos yielded a “good” +47 net satisfaction rating, higher than the “good” +44 posted in Sept. 2023. (PNA)
