- VP Sara up by 31%
The Trust Rating of Pres. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos plummeted to -3% (Negative 3 percent) in the latest Social Weather Station Survey amidst the magma of corruption involving ghost and substandard flood control projects and other anomalous transactions that hounded his administration.
On the other hand, Vice Pres. Sara Duterte gained 31 percent despite the concerted attacks against her by black propagandists in mainstream and various social media platforms.
The survey was sponsored by Stratbase Consultancy. It was conducted in the last week of November and was released after Christmas day.
Marcos positive rating was only from Balance Luzon (the total area outside of the National Capital Region or Metro Manila) were he scored 18 percent. He was rated dismally in Mindanao where he obtained -38%, Visayas at -7% and NCR with -8 percent.
VP Sara on the other hand achieved a mind boggling Trust Rating in Mindanao at 74%, Visayas at 43% , Balance Luzon with 12% and NCR with just 2% nevertheless still positive.
The scores obtained by the two highest officials of the land reflect how badly Marcos lost the people’s confidence in running the government in terms of bringing to justice the corrupt officials and contractors involved in the ghost flood control projects which is the centerpiece agenda of his administration, mismanagement of the economy, decline and exit of investors in the country and a foreign policy that depicts the country eager to go to war with China as a lackey of the United States.
Vice President Duterte on the other hand weathered all the concerted tirades against her, from the phalanx of paid black propagandists and members of Congress of varied political persuasions that depravely connived to get her off the 2028 presidential race.
In the process the VP courageously faced her tormentors and proved what and how strong a leader must be. The public in the process saw the stark difference between her strength and weakness of Marcos in terms of leadership as manifested in the trust ratings culled by the SWS survey.
On matters of accountabiloty, allegations of graft and corruption and misuse of funds VP Sara is being pilloried by the allies of Marcos and Speaker Romualdez in the House of Representatives over her Confidential and Intelligence Funds even as the Commission on Audit had already issued an unmodified opinion on her reports of expenditures. On the other hand the same critics are quiet over the ₱4.5-billion secret funds of Marcos. The Office of the President proposed to increase the fund to ₱10.7-billion in the 2026 budget.
The scandalous flood control ghost projects and insertions of billions of pesos also dragged Marcos and his son Rep. Sandro Marcos deep in the mess. Rep. Zaldy Co, the erstwhile Chairman of the powerful Appropriation Committee and perceived head of the “small committee” that decides the finality of the General Appropriation Bill , had implicated President Marcos and Speaker Romualdez in the multibillion kickbacks in a series of video clips released by Co to the media. VP Sara on the other hand had early on exposed that the government budget is only decided by three persons, namely: Marcos, Romualdez and Co.
There is also public awareness over the illegal transfer of PhilHealth and Philippine Deposit Insurance Coporation Trust Funds to the government treasury which legal luminaries dubbed as a plunderous act.
Malacanang downplayed the negative trust rating on President Marcos claiming that he is busy fighting corruption. At the height of investigations conducted by the House of Representatives, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Independent Commission on Infrastructures, Marcos declared that those involved in corruption over the ghost flood control projects will not be able to celebrate Christmas. So far only seven minor officials of DPWH are behind bars.
