Government gets lowest rating in fighting inflation, corruption

MANILA, Philippines — While President Marcos’ overall performance in his first six months may have rated high among Filipinos based on a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), his administration’s handling of inflation appeared to inspire less confidence.

In the 2023 SWS Survey Review held at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati yesterday, SWS vice president Jay Sandoval presented the highlights of the Dec. 10 to 14 survey on public satisfaction with the national administration.

While the national government’s overall satisfaction was at “excellent” +74, Sandoval noted that it obtained lower ratings in terms of some specific issues, particularly addressing inflation and fighting corruption.

Based on the survey, satisfaction with the government’s efforts to address inflation was at “neutral” +1, while it was at “moderate” +12 in terms of fighting corruption.

Other specific issues included in the presentation were helping the poor (“very good” +64) and campaigning against illegal drugs (“good” +46).

SWS has yet to release the full details of the survey, which is expected to include the percentage of respondents who were satisfied or dissatisfied with the government’s actions on specific issues.

The net satisfaction rating is the rounded off difference between those who said that they are satisfied and those dissatisfied with the performance of a particular government official.

Based on the graph presented by Sandoval, satisfaction with the government in terms of fighting inflation and helping the poor improved compared to the last survey conducted during the term of former president Rodrigo Duterte, while satisfaction declined in terms of campaign against illegal drugs and fighting corruption.

The December 2022 survey had 1,200 respondents and a margin of error of +/- 2.8 percent.