Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte enjoys ‘very good’ approval rating after 90 days in power
Analysts say Filipinos feel safer because Duterte had followed through with his promised war on crime and drugs
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been rated “very good” in an opinion poll on his first 90 days in office, which has been defined largely by his deadly war on drugs and vitriol against Western leaders.
Only 11 per cent of 1,200 Filipinos surveyed by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) agency said they were dissatisfied with his performance. That gave Duterte a net satisfaction rating of 64 per cent, getting him off to a better start than predecessors Benigno Aquino, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, but short of the 66 per cent achieved by Fidel Ramos in 1992.
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The rating, announced on Thursday, was calculated by deducting the 11 per cent from the 76 per cent of respondents who said they were satisfied with Duterte’s presidency, then rounding it off. Another 13 per cent were undecided.
A survey by Pulse Asia, another polling agency, less than a month after he took office on June 30 said Duterte had a record 91 per cent trust rating. The two polls are not comparable.
Duterte won the May 9 election by a substantial margin after promising to expand a ruthless anti-crime campaign he started while mayor of Davao City, which had earned him nicknames like “the Punisher” and “Duterte Harry”.