The administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. gained a high performance rating in a Pulse Asia survey released on Thursday.

The survey, conducted from September 17 to 21, 2022 which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the declaration of martial law, shows that the Marcos administration "registers majority approval rating on 11 of the 13" selected national issues.

Based on the survey the "appreciation is the majority sentiment toward the present administration’s work in the areas of responding to the needs of calamity-hit areas (78 percent), controlling the spread of COVID-19 (78 percent), promoting peace in the country (69 percent), protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (68 percent), fighting criminality (67 percent), enforcing the rule of law (62 percent), creating more jobs (59 percent), increasing workers’ pay (59 percent), fighting graft and corruption in government (58 percent), protecting the environment (57 percent), and defending the country’s territorial integrity (52 percent)."

But Pulse Asia said "when it comes to controlling inflation, the only majority urgent national concern, the plurality opinion among Filipino adults (42 percent) is one of disapproval for the national administration’s performance."

It also shows that most Filipino adults are concerned about the soaring prices of basic commodities. It stressed that the public concern regarding price hike becames more pronounced between June 2022 and September 2022.

"Amidst the continuing increase in the prices of basic goods, two-thirds of the country’s adult population (66 percent) consider the need to control inflation as the national issue that requires the immediate attention of the incumbent administration," the survey stated.

"This is the prevailing view in all geographic areas and socio-economic classes (56 percent to 81 percent and 51 percent to 71 percent, respectively). Almost half of Filipino adults cite increasing workers’ pay as an urgent national concern (44 percent) while around a third of them are concerned about job creation and poverty reduction (35 percent and 34 percent, respectively)," it added.

It also shows that "nearly a quarter of Filipino adults (22 percent) say the present dispensation should immediately take steps to combat corruption in government." Robina Asido/DMS