The Philippine Online Chronicles

A survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) from December 5 to 10 showed that the public satisfaction on the Arroyo administration's performance dipped to its all-time low of -23 rating for the last quarter of 2009.

The non-commissioned survey yielded an overall performance rating falling in the “poor” bracket, with 28 percent of the respondents satisfied, while 51 percent were not. In 2001, the general satisfaction rating was also in the “poor” bracket at -21.

Interviewed were 2100 adults, divided into random samples of 300 for Metro Manila and 600 each in balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The following are the other factors considered in the survey: a “very good” net satisfaction rating for the government's efforts in helping disaster victims; “moderate” for natural calamity preparedness, overseas Filipino workers' (OFW) welfare advancement, cheaper medicine, and poverty mitigation; “neutral” for anti-terrorism and anti-illegal drugs campaigns, Muslim rebels and communist rebels reconciliation, crime-fighting, and efforts to desist economy inflation; while “poor” ratings for hunger alleviation, Mindanao armed partisan groups suppression, and eradication of graft and corruption.

Sen. Loren Legarda, a vice-presidential aspirant under the Nacionalista Party (NP), alluded this “low popularity rating of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to her poor governance resulting in widespread hunger, joblessness, environmental degradation and lawlessness.”

The SWS, meanwhile, highlighted that people in all areas and classes gave differing opinions on the government's efforts to bring justice to the victims of the November 23 Maguindanao massacre. This, according to them, explains the “poor” satisfaction rating of the Arroyo administration.

“Our people will no longer tolerate a repetition of such massive misgovernment, neglect and impunity. Their patience is waning. They deserve deliverance and look forward to it peacefully in the next elections,” Legarda said in a statement.

The SWS net satisfaction ratings are as follows: very good (50+ and above), good (+30 to +49), moderate (+10 to +29), neutral (+9 to -9), poor (-10 to -29), bad (-30 to – 49), and very bad (-50 and lower).