More than half of voters want Duterte policies improved but continued — survey

MANILA, Philippines — More than half of Filipino voters would prefer the next administration to partially continue rather than change or fully continue the Duterte administration's policies, new survey results from public opinion research firm WR Numero Research suggest.  

According to a report of the survey results sent to media, 54.6% of voters want "soft continuity" of the administration's policies, which the political consulting firm said was "driven by President [Rodrigo] Duterte’s high approval rating."

Only 29.6% of survey respondents said they prefer full continuity of Duterte-era policies, while only 15.8% wanted change.

"This survey reflects one of the main criteria for how the voters will decide in the May 9 election," WRN's report reads.

Most voters satisfied with Duterte

With less than six months left in his term, Duterte enjoys a high satisfaction rating with almost 68% of Filipino respondents who rated his administration as either very good or good.

Of which, 34.1% responded, “very good" when asked how President Duterte fared in leading the country in the past five years while 33.9% answered 'good".

In contrast, just around 20% found the administration’s performance to be lacking with 10.6% and 9.48% of the respondents answering “Hindi naging mahusay” (Poor) and “Labis na hindi naging mahusay” (Very Poor), respectively.

The remaining 12.53% of Filipino voters were undecided. 

Overwhelming approval and trust ratings for the president were logged even as the Philippines went through the world's longest quarantine amid problematic pandemic response marred by allegations of corruption.

The chief executive's flagship policy, his bloody "war on drugs" which rights groups say has claimed almost 30,000 lives, is also the subject of investigation by the International Criminal Court. 

Duterte's daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is running for vice president alongside Ferdinand Marcos Jr, whom the administration PDP-Laban has announced support for.

Methodology

WR Numero Research said it used "several  levels  of  statistical  intervention" in  its  digital  survey which involved 1,200 unique respondents.

WRN also reported a 95% confidence interval from a "high-quality  online  panel  that  is representative  of  all  classes."

The firm also employs a quota sampling and a proportional weighting method with data from the Philippine Statistics Authority and the Commission on Elections.  

The company said that this methodology is meant "to avoid overrepresentation and underrepresentation across the four demographic  profiles – socio-economic, geographic, sex and gender, and age." 

— with a report from Xave Gregorio