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MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte suffered the biggest drop in his presidency in the third quarter, an independent pollster said on Tuesday, while inflation and the price of basic rice.
President Rodrigo Duterte speaks after his arrival after a visit to Israel and Jordan at Davao International Airport in Davao, southern Philippines, on September 8, 2018. REUTERS / Lean Daval Jr.
Duterte's approval rating, a measure of its performance, dropped 13 points to 75 percent in a survey of 1,800 Filipinos of voting age by Pulse Asia this month.
His confidence rating, which assesses the feeling about his personality, dropped by 15 points to 72%. A similar poll in June earned him 88% and 87% respectively.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte, who had been in power since June 2016, was puzzled by the ratings and focused on his work.
"We are not affected because the president will do his best to perform his duties," Roque said at a regular press briefing. "I think it's still a very good rating."
Roque said rising inflation could have triggered lower ratings as rising rice prices overturned the administration's gains in other areas.
The survey was conducted during the first week of September, when official data indicated annual inflation of 6.4% in August, the highest in almost a decade.
Calls were launched to abolish the grain import agency and, within a week, a corruption complaint was filed against his chief, who has since resigned.
Another pollster, Social Weather Stations, released the results this month of a second-quarter survey showing confidence in Duterte that had reached its lowest level during his presidency, although he remained "very good".
Report by Manuel Mogato and Neil Jerome Morales; Edited by Martin Petty and Clarence Fernandez
