Pres. Duterte we heard you loud and clear!
In the headline news of our national dailies, Pulse Asia reported that the trust and performance ratings for President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte saw a drop from 83% in December 2016 to 78% in March 2017 with an error of plus or minus 3%. I’m sure that the Yellowtards are overjoyed with this report, while the Dutertards are saying that this is normal for a Presidency that has already been nine months in office. Pres. Duterte's trust rating continues to be high in Mindanao and Visayas with 90 percent and 84 percent, respectively and that’s due to the fact that he has focused on huge infra projects in these places south of Manila like the Mindanao Railway!
I watched the ANC interview of Pulse Asia research director Ana Tabunda who said that Duterte’s current performance and trust ratings are comparable with former President Benigno Aquino III’s ratings in March 2011. Tabunda also said that ratings of presidents traditionally decline over time. This is why many Dutertards are not alarmed by this drop as reported by Pulse Asia. What is significant from the statement of Tabunda was when she said, “Duterte is not immune to changes in opinion, that no single issue is responsible for Duterte’s rating drop but a combination of issues.”
If there is any single issue that could have caused a drop in Pres. Duterte’s trust and performance ratings, it is the continued media attacks against the so-called extra judicial killings (EJK) in news reports by CNN and New York Times, which also demanded the release of incarcerated Sen. Leila de Lima. This includes the statements by the European Union wherein those news reports also end up as headline news in our national and local newspapers where most Filipinos get to read this negative reporting.
Then of course, there’s that impeachment complaint for Pres. Duterte. Another major factor that may have caused this drop is his usual tirades against the bishops, priests and the Catholic Church. When he attacks Catholics in general, Pres. Duterte fails to realize that many of us, staunch Catholics also supported him and just because we supported him, don’t expect us to defect to another Christian church. This is why Pres. Duterte should be told that when attacking the Catholic Church he also attacks a great majority of Catholic Filipinos that supported his presidency.
Like what I already wrote, his saintly mother the late Mrs. Soledad Roa Duterte lived and died a Catholic and so now, she is part of the Triumphant Church in heaven. We respect the fact that Pres. Duterte is no longer a Catholic, so he must be told that he should respect Catholics even if he hates certain Catholic bishops, whom many Catholics also do not like!
As a supporter of Pres. Duterte, let me say that he is far from perfect and he openly admits that. If there is anything that he needs to change immediately, he must stop repeating his talks about killing those who would destroy our youth for he has already sent this message in the last nine months in office. When Pres. Duterte must speak on new issues, he must focus on it. But instead, he repeats his favorite, “I will kill you!” which the foreign media loves to interpret in the wrong way! Someone in the Duterte Cabinet must be brave enough to tell Pres. Digong that the Filipino people have heard him loud and clear so he could move on to many other pressing topics!
Mind you, there are many plus factors that make many people continue to support Pres. Duterte despite his negatives. For instance his firing of around a hundred government employees for corruption and the recent firing of Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mike Sueno. This is a
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