Binay satisfaction rating down – SWS

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Jejomar Binay’s net satisfaction rating fell by nine percentage points but stayed in “good” territory in the third quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

About six in 10 Filipinos or 58 percent expressed satisfaction with the performance of Binay while 25 percent were dissatisfied, giving him a net satisfaction score of +33.

The Vice President’s satisfaction rating last June was +42 (64 percent satisfied, 22 percent dissatisfied).

Rico Quicho, vice presidential spokesman for political affairs, played down the nine-point decline in the Vice President’s satisfaction rating.

“In the latest SWS survey, 58 percent of respondents are satisfied with the work of Vice President Binay. The results of the different surveys strengthen the resolve of the Vice President to continue to fight for his pro-poor programs that he has started in Makati,” he said.

Quicho also said Binay would continue with his provincial trips “to directly talk with and listen to the people and offer them a decisive, effective and inclusive governance.” 

In Clark Freeport in Pampanga, 4,000 supporters of Binay launched the Pangulo na si Jojo Binay Movement at the Stotsenberg Convention Center last Sunday. The supporters were from the provinces of Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales.

The highlight was the oath taking of the 4,000 people who adhere to Binay’s platform of government which he promised to pursue should he be elected president in May 2016.

Included in Binay’s platform is to increase the basic salary of public school teachers.

Joey Salgado, media affairs head for the Office of the Vice President, said Binay will ask the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, which he plans to convene immediately under his presidency, to include bills increasing teachers’ salaries and benefits among other priorities.

Salgado said Binay is looking at adjusting the salary of a Teacher 1 from the salary Grade 11 (P18,549) to at least salary Grade 19 (P33,859) because the low compensation forces many educators to leave their profession and the country for jobs abroad.

Several bills on education are now filed in the Senate, including the Public School Teachers’ Incentives Act of 2013 filed by the Vice President’s daughter Sen. Nancy Binay.

“A Binay presidency will push for such notable bills, especially those providing benefits to the teachers, and those that will increase appropriations for education,” Salgado said.

“He will continue to present his platform that is based on uplifting the lives of the people and ensuring that the ineptness and iniquities displayed by the present administration will cease,” Quicho said.

Cabinet, House, Senate ratings up

In the SWS survey, President Aquino’s Cabinet gained four points to a “moderate” +16.

Malacañang expressed gratitude to Filipinos for trusting the members of the Cabinet.

“This mirrors their continuing high level of satisfaction with the President’s performance going into the final phase of the Aquino administration,” Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said.

Meanwhile, the satisfaction ratings of the Senate and House of Representatives went up by 11 points and six points, respectively.

The House gained six points to a “moderate” +26 while the Senate received a net satisfaction score of a “good” +44, which the SWS said is the highest in over two years since June 2013.

SC rating down

However, satisfaction rating of the Supreme Court suffered a five-point decline to a “moderate” +27 from “good” +32 in June.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno also suffered a seven-point drop in her net satisfaction rating, from the “moderate” +11 (37 percent satisfied, 25 percent dissatisfied) in June to a “neutral” +4 (33 percent satisfied, 29 percent dissatisfied).

Public satisfaction with Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. also fell by four points to a “neutral” +5 (34 percent satisfied, 29 percent dissatisfied) from +9.

Only Senate President Franklin Drilon registered an improvement from the “moderate” +29 (52 percent satisfied, 24 percent dissatisfied) in June to a “good” +42 (61 percent satisfied, 18 percent dissatisfied) last month.

SWS classifies net satisfaction ratings of at least +70 as “excellent”; +50 to +69 as “very good”; +30 to +49, “good”; +10 to +29, “moderate”; +9 to -9, “neutral”; -10 to -29, “poor”; -30 to -49, “bad”; -50 to -69, “very bad”; and those -70 and below as “execrable.”

The survey was conducted from Sept. 2 to 5 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide.

The survey has a sampling error margin of plus or minus three percentage points for national percentages. – Helen Flores, Delon Porcalla, Ric Sapnu