No other head of state has approval rating of 91%

Here is another piece of bad news for people who always attack President Rodrigo Duterte in order to promote their own personal agenda. I’m referring to Vice President Leni Robredo or former House speaker Pantaleon Alvarez who openly declared that the way the President handled the Covid-19 pandemic was a total failure so much so that he sounded more like Leni Robredo and her cohorts of Yellowtards and trolls.

Well, the President scored the highest approval and trust ratings among the five top government officials amid criticisms over his administration’s handling of the pandemic, according to a Pulse Asia survey released the other day.

The poll, conducted from Sept. 14 to 20, showed that Duterte obtained an approval rating of 91 percent, up four points from 87 percent last December. Those who disapproved of his work remained at five percent. If you ask me, there is no world leader in the United Nations that got a similar rating as President Duterte. The remaining five percent were undecided, down from eight percent.

The poll also found that the 91 percent of Filipinos who expressed trust in Duterte is up eight points from 83 percent. Only three percent distrust the President, down from six percent last survey. Also, six percent of the respondents could not say whether or not they trust Duterte, down from 10 percent last December.

Meanwhile, Vice President Robredo received an approval rating of 57 percent, down by a point from 58 percent. Twenty-two percent said they disapproved of Robredo’s performance, up from 20 percent. Indecision with her work stayed at 21 percent.

The people’s trust in Robredo also dropped to 50 percent from 53 percent. Those who expressed distrust in the Vice President rose from 20 percent to 22 percent. The remaining 28 percent were undecided, up from 26 percent. 

Meanwhile, Senate President Vicente Sotto III’s approval rating stayed at 84 percent while his disapproval score increased by a point to six percent. Sen. Sotto’s trust rating rose by a point to 79 percent, while distrust in him was unchanged at five percent. Surprisingly, Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano suffered the biggest drop in approval rating, dipping to 70 percent from 80 percent. Those who disapproved of his job increased to 10 percent from six percent.

Cayetano’s trust rating dropped from 76 percent to 67 percent. Those who expressed distrust in him increased from six percent to nine percent.

Forty-four percent of Filipinos approved of the performance of Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta, against 13 percent who said otherwise.

Peralta obtained a trust rating of 39 percent and 13 percent distrust score.

There was no comparative data for Peralta since this was the first time he was included in the Ulat ng Bayan survey, Pulse Asia explained.

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I’m sorry if I’m writing this a bit late. But 13 years ago, this was our everyday headline story that resulted from Cebu’s preparation for the 12th Association of Asian Nations Summit in the year 2007 that we dubbed the “Lamppost Scam.” Actually, this report was headlined in The Freeman/Philippine Star last Friday. I was having a board meeting with the family and picked up my Freeman newspaper when it was already evening after our meeting and I really had no time to read the headline news entitled “Four Found Guilty” which really pointed to the four people guilty of the Lamppost Scam.

Found guilty were former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH-7) director Robert Lala and three others and were sentenced to six to eight years of imprisonment in connection with the anomalous awarding of contract for decorative lampposts installed in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu for the 12thASEAN Summit in 2007.

In an 85-page decision promulgated on September 29, the Sandiganbayan Sixth Division found Lala guilty of violation of Section 3 (e) of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

This decision may have come quite late but, in the end, the Sandiganbayan allowed justice to take its course. Back then, we suspected that this was a scam because less than a year after the ASEAN Summit, many of the lamppost no longer worked.

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