One of two Filipinos is dissatisfied with the performance of the Arroyo administration, with public satisfaction hitting a new record low last month, with six months to go before a new government takes over, a new survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed. According to the SWS survey, conducted between December 5 and 10 last year, the administration's net satisfaction rating fell to -23 (28 percent satisfied and 51 percent dissatisfied) in December, lower than -20 in the third quarter and worse than the record low of -21 in June 2008. The new score was within the range described by the SWS as poor — a category the Arroyo government has been in since February last year. However, the survey also showed the administration got a neutral score of -2 for its response to the massacre of at least 57 people in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao last November 23. The Ampatuan clan, some of whose members were linked to the massacre, are allies of the administration and had been accused of manipulating elections in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to favor administration candidates in 2004 and 2007. Last December, a separate SWS survey showed Mrs. Arroyo getting a failing grade in net satisfaction, which stayed "bad" at -38.
The SWS considers net satisfaction ratings of +50 and above as very good; +30 to +49 as good; +10 to +29 as moderate; +9 to -9 as neutral; -10 to -29 as poor; -30 to -49 as bad; and -50 or lower as very bad. The last time the present administration received a favorable rating, a moderate +15, was in August 2004. Its best was a moderate +27 just after Mrs. Arroyo took office in 2001. Rated on 14 issues, the Arroyo administration scored a very good on one — helping victims of disasters (+51). It got moderate grades on four issues — being prepared for natural calamities (+27), promoting the welfare of Filipino workers abroad (+26), ensuring medicines are affordable (+20), and helping the poor (+17). The administration got neutral ratings on six issues — fighting terrorism (+4), campaigning against illegal drugs (-3), reconciling with both Muslim and communist rebels (-4 and -5, respectively), and fighting crime and inflation (-9 each). Except for fighting inflation, all the scores were worse than in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the administration got a poor rating on three issues — fighting hunger (-15), suppressing politicians with private armies in Mindanao (-17), and eradicating graft and corruption (-27).
The SWS survey showed three-quarters of Filipinos had closely followed developments in the Maguindanao massacre, including the arrest of members of the Ampatuan clan. However, this was still less than the 81 percent who kept tabs on the fight between boxing icon Emmanuel "Manny" Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto a few days earlier. The quarterly SWS survey was conducted from December 5-10, using face-to-face interviews with 2,100 respondents. It had sampling error margins of ±2.2% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila and ±4% for the balance of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. —
LBG/NPA, GMANews.TV 
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