Proof in the eating
Pinoys shrugging off political noise: DOF
AN overwhelming majority of Filipinos are apparently oblivious to the undue political noise and are appreciative of President Rodrigo Duterte’s resolute efforts in his first three months in office to make good on his electoral mandate to restore peace and order, sustain the growth momentum and bring the benefits of our fast-growing economy to all Filipinos.
Department of Finance (DOF) spokesperson Paola Alvarez said this best explains the record net satisfaction ratings of the President in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which the polling firm said showed that his administration was off to a “very good start.”
“Certain groups advancing their narrow and selfish partisan interests have failed to drown out with their political chatter the initial accomplishments of President Duterte, which includes not only his tough campaign versus crime and illegal drugs, but a wellcrafted tax reform program designed to help realize his campaign commitment to attack poverty and make high growth inclusive for all,” Alvarez said.
“This should serve as a wake-up call to the President’s critics that most Filipinos are impervious to their political chatter and that they would do our country a lot of good by just supporting the new government’s ambitious efforts to rapidly reduce poverty and transform the Philippines into an upper middle-income country by 2022 and a high-income economy in one generation or by 2040,” said Alvarez.
In the Sept. 24-27 survey conducted by the SWS among 1,20o respondents nationwide, President Duterte obtained a +64 percent net satisfaction rating, besting those received by his post-EDSA 1986 predecessors, save for Fidel Ramos, who got a +66 in 1992. Mr. Duterte’s ratings were either “excellent” or “very good” across all regions, socioeconomic classes, genders and age groups, the SWS survey showed. Alvarez noted that President Duterte got an “excellent” rating in particular in Mindanao because of his decisive moves to include Mindanaoans in the Cabinet and his regular trips to Davao City and elsewhere in the South, “which prove his commitment to truly devolve political power and growth from Mega Manila to the country’s other regions.”