Marcos, VP Sara get high approval, trust ratings in latest Pulse Asia poll

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte both garnered high approval and trust ratings in March, according to the results of a Pulse Asia survey released on Wednesday.

Conducted from March 15 to 19, the survey showed that Marcos enjoyed a 78% approval rating while Duterte, his running mate in the 2022 elections, had 83%.

As for trust ratings, Marcos had 80% while Duterte had 85%.

According to Pulse Asia, Marcos and Duterte both enjoyed majority approval scores in all geographic areas and socio-economic groupings.

Marcos posted the highest approval rating in the Visayas at 93%, followed by Mindanao at 87%. His approval rating reached 70% in Balanced Luzon, just slightly higher than the 68% he got from the National Capital Region (NCR).

He is also the most popular in Class E households who gave him an 87% approval rating, significantly higher than in Class D (78%) and Class A (65%).

The President's March 2023's national approval rating of 78% is just a bit lower than his November 2022 score of 82%.

Duterte, meanwhile, scored a 76% approval rating in NCR, which is slightly higher than her Balanced Luzon score of 72%.  She had 98% and 97% approval ratings, respectively, Mindanao and the Visayas.

Duterte scored the highest approval rating among Class E income households with 95%. In Class D her approval rating was 82% and in Class ABC it was 70%.

The Vice President’s March 2023 approval rating of 83% was largely unchanged compared with her November 2022 approval score of 84%.

Results of the same Pulse Asia survey also showed Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and House Speaker Martin Romualdez both having an approval rating of 51%, and trust ratings of 48% and 44%, respectively.

Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, meanwhile, recorded had approval and trust ratings of 43% and 39%, respectively.

The Pulse Asia poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews on 1,200 respondents aged 18 years old and above. It has a ± 2.8% error margin at the 95% confidence level.

Subnational estimates for the geographic areas covered in the survey have the following error margins at 95% confidence level: ± 5.7% for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Among the key developments that took place before and during the conduct of the survey were the assassination of Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo, the nationwide transport strike against jeepney modernization, the sinking of MT Princess Empress that caused an oil spill in Oriental Mindoro, the death of an Adamson University student allegedly due to hazing, and the agreement of the Philippines and the United States to expand their Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) by adding four more locations to the existing five. —KBK, GMA Integrated News