P-Noy's Officials Rating Drop

MANILA, Philippines - Performance and trust ratings of the country's top 5 officials declined significantly, according to Pulse Asia's latest survey released Tuesday, February 12, with Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile as the biggest loser. Across the board, the country's top officials - President Benigno Aquino III, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Enrile, House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno - suffered double-digit declines in their overall performance rating between November 2012 and January 2013.
 Enrile suffered the most significant approval rating drop, from 73% in November to 46% in January, a decrease of 27 percentage points, according to Pulse Asia's January 2013 Pre-Election Survey (PES).
 His disapproval ratings, on the other hand, rose from 5% to 16%, an 11-percentage point rise. People who said they are undecided about his performance also grew, from 22% to 37%. The survey noted that Aquino and Binay are the top two officials who are still enjoying majority approval ratings, despite significant drops. Aquino suffered a 12-percentage point drop, from 78% approval rating in November to 66% in January. People undecided about his performance increased during the same period (16% to 28%), while disapproval rating remained unchanged at 6%. Binay's approval ratings also declined, from 82% to 69%, while his disapproval ratings rose slightly, from 3% to 5%.
 His "undecided" rating rose by 11 percentage points, from 14% to 25%. Belmonte and Sereno, already having relatively low performance ratings, also suffered significant declines: 18 percentage points for the House Speaker (46% to 28%), and 14 points for the Chief Justice (38% to 24%). Trust ratings As with the performance ratings, only Aquino and Binay got majority trust ratings in the Pulse Asia PES, with all top five officials suffering declines.
 The survey noted "sizeable majority trust ratings" for Aquino (68%) and Binay (71%), while trust is the plurality of sentiment for Enrile (46%). A near majority of the survey respondents, however, are undecided on their opinion on Belmonte and Sereno. Belmonte got a 28% trust, 21% distrust, and 48% "undecided" ratings, while Sereno had 24% trust, 20% distrust, and 50% "undecided" ratings.
 Enrile got the biggest trust rating change from November 2012 to January 2013, a drop of 21 percentage points from 67% to 46%. Distrust of Enrile, on the other hand, rose by 10 points, from 5% to 15%, in the same period. Aquino's trust rating came down 12 percentage points (from 80%), while Binay's was down 10 points (from 81%).
 The President and the Senate President also saw double-digit increases in their "undecided" rating - from 16% to 26% for Aquino, and from 27% to 38% for Enrile. Declines were also seen in the trust ratings for the Senate, House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court. The survey was conducted from January 19 to 30, Pulse Asia said, through face-to-face interviews. Sample size of the PES was 1,800 registered voters from across the country.
 The survey was done with the following issues as backdrop: Senate funds controversy Preparations for the start of the 2013 senatorial and local elections Atimonan shooting incident Grounding of USS Guardian at Tubbataha Reef Pres Aquino's attendance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland Highly-publicized crimes at malls and the shooting of an Isabela town mayor Philippines filing a case vs China on the territorial dispute on the West Philippine Sea Pulse Asia's Pre-Election Survey has a +/-2% margin of error at 95% confidence level. The survey group said the survey is conducted independently. - Rappler.com