Survey: 64% of Pinoys approve of US leadership

MANILA, Philippines - Nearly two in three Filipinos approve of the leadership of the United States of America, US-based pollster Gallup revealed.

According to Gallup, 64 percent of Filipinos look favorably toward the current US leadership, in stark contrast to 65 percent of Filipinos who disapprove of China.

"The Philippines maintains long-standing ties to the US, despite the US being forced to vacate Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base about 24 years ago," Gallup said.

The pollster added that the US has maintained a Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines since 1951 and recently negotiated an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement between with the Philippines.

US President Barack Obama recently attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Manila on November 18, where he reiterated his country's "ironclad" commitment to defend the Philippines in the face of Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.

The same poll results showed massive confidence Filipinos have for the military, which was at 82 percent. Confidence in the national government, meanwhile, was at 69 percent.

"As a result of internal and external threats, Philippines President Benigno Aquino III embarked on a military modernization effort shortly after taking office in 2010. This effort, along with military and government involvement in reconstruction after massive typhoons in the early 2010s, likely helped spur higher confidence in the military among the Filipino public," Gallup noted.

The survey's results were based on 1,001 face-to-face interviews in the Philippines in May 2015 among people aged 15 and older. The margin of sampling error is ±3.7 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.