The more the critics of President Rodrigo Duterte hit him with dirt, the more Filipinos trust and admire him, the Palace said Tuesday following Duterte’s new net satisfaction rating.
Social Weather Stations said eight out of 10 Filipinos or 80 percent were satisfied with the President’s overall performance in its latest survey.
The pollster also said President Duterte garnered a +68 net satisfaction rating, surpassing his previous record of +66 in March 2019 and June 2017.
Viewing the latest survey results as a “habitual vexing news” to the critics, detractors and the opposition, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said, “the few boisterous minorities should begin to see the President in the best lights and not with jaundiced eyes.”
“The more they hit PRRD with dirt, the more people trust him. The more the Left assault him with a torrent of false narratives, the greater our people admire him,” Panelo said in a statement.
“The uglier the militant groups of the church paint the Chief Executive, the prettier his image becomes. And the more the biased media assault him with negative propaganda, the more the people are enamored with him.”
Panelo touted the survey results at a time when the Recto Bank incident could have affected Duterte’s satisfaction rating from the public, saying the results proved that Filipinos trusted the President’s “honest intentions” despite the criticisms.
“We note that this survey, with data being gathered from June 22-26 this year, is the first post-midterm election independent survey conducted and was done at the height of the Recto Bank incident, an issue which the anti-Duterte forces pulverized the President with venom, and until now pilloried ad nauseam,” Panelo said.
“The reality is unmistakable. More and more Filipinos, even former cynics, are believing in the President’s honest intentions for our nation.”
Duterte meanwhile downplayed his new rating, saying he was just doing his job.
“As you know, I do not go for this kind of things. For me, it’s all about work,” Duterte said.
“As I’ve always said, if you are satisfied with my work, then I知 happy. If you are not satisfied, then I'll work more. I’ll exert more sweat.”
Even as Duterte shrugged off his high ratings, Panelo said, the Palace “cannot but treat this unprecedented excellent rating as a thumbs up sign that the President is on the right track in his policies and actions of governance.”
“It is likewise a complete repudiation of his political nemeses and hecklers who remain chained to their bias and prejudice,” Panelo said.
He then told the “incorrigible political adversaries and religious bigots” of the administration to “swallow their pride and embrace the President’s call for unity for the betterment of the nation.”
