The Marcos administration received majority approval ratings on seven of the 14 issues on which its performance was evaluated, based on the results of the December 2023 Pulse Asia survey, which were released on Monday, Jan. 8.

According to Pulse Asia, the current administration has the highest approval rating for protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (78 percent).

Majority approval ratings were also recorded for its handling of these issues: responding to needs of disaster-affected areas (76 percent), protecting the environment (62 percent), promoting peace (61 percent), defending national territorial integrity (61 percent), fighting criminality (56 percent), and enforcing the rule of law (51 percent).

Meanwhile, Pulse Asia pointed out that the Marcos administration received its only majority disapproval rating (73 percent) on controlling inflation, the single issue identified as urgent by majority of Filipinos (72 percent).

Half of Filipinos support admin’s efforts to help farmers, create more jobs

“Appreciation is the plurality sentiment towards the administration’s efforts to help farmers (50 percent), create more jobs (45 percent), and address the problem of involuntary hunger (41 percent),” it added.

It noted that the government received “almost the same approval and disapproval ratings” for its work in increasing workers’ pay (34 percent versus 36 percent).

Likewise, around the same percentages of Filipino adults either disapprove of the incumbent leadership’s initiatives to fight corruption and reduce poverty or are ambivalent on the matter (33 percent to 39 percent versus 37 percent to 38 percent).

“Between September 2023 to December 2023, approval becomes more notable for the administration’s work in terms of protecting the environment (+8 percentage points) but eases in the areas of increasing workers’ pay (-7 percentage points), controlling inflation (-7 percentage points), and fighting corruption (-15 percentage points),” Pulse Asia said.

“On the other hand, disapproval levels go up regarding the administration’s efforts to deal with the problem of involuntary hunger (+8 percentage points), reducing poverty (+8 percentage points), fighting corruption (+10 percentage points), increasing the pay of workers (+12 percentage points), and controlling inflation (+17 percentage points),” it also said.

Pulse Asia also pointed out that ambivalence toward the administration’s anti-corruption efforts increased (+6 percentage points) in the previous quarter.

In contrast, its initiatives to protect the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (-6 percentage points), raise workers’ pay (-6 percentage points), create more jobs (-8 percentage points), stop environmental degradation (-10 percentage points), and control inflation (-10 percentage points) saw a drop in indecision.

Pulse Asia’s December 2023 “Ulat ng Bayan” survey had 1,200 respondents and was conducted from Dec. 3 to 7.