‘Rody’s high ratings wake-up call to critics’

President Duterte’s “very good” satisfaction rating on his first 100 days in office should be a wake-up call to his critics to just throw their support behind the Chief Executive, the Department of Finance said over the weekend.

“Certain groups advancing their narrow and selfish partisan interests have failed to drown out with their political chatter the initial accomplishments of President Duterte,” said finance spokesperson Paola Alvarez.

“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,” she added.

Alvarez was referring to the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that showed Duterte got a “very good” average of +64 percent satisfaction rating from Filipinos, the highest since former president Fidel Ramos’ +66, which was also tagged as “very good.”

Sought for comment, Ramon Casiple, executive director at the Institute for Political and Economic Reforms, said Duterte should take advantage of the popular support, but also take notice of alleged human rights violations.

“The high rating means people will give him the space to undertake his programs, which were his campaign promises,” Casiple said in a text message. “If there are human rights violations grave enough or on a mass scale, it will undermine popular support.”

The space given to suspend judgment on a new government is usually termed “honeymoon period,” and Casiple said it is hard to say how long this would last.

For Duterte, suppressing crime and illegal drugs would lead to the fulfillment of his promise of a better life for Filipinos.

“As long as ( Duterte) continues on this path, he will have popular support,” Casiple said.