Palace sees trust rating rising over time

Malacañang took in stride relatively low ratings the government got in a public relations firm’s latest survey showing only seven percent of 500 respondents trust the government. Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Aquino administration is determined to gradually win the public’s trust in government. “We are cognizant of how government has been viewed in past years. Alam natin ‘yan kaya gusto natin itaas ang antas ng pagtingin ng ating kababayan sa pamahalaan. Nakikita natin ‘yan unti-unti nagbabago ‘yan." she said on government-run dzRB radio. PR firm Eon conducted the first Philippine Trust Index, and learned that 51 percent of respondents said they trusted the Church, followed by media (22 percent), non-government organizations (12 percent), business (10 percent) and government (7 percent). “We hope to see those numbers improving over time," Valte added. The survey, taken from May to June this year, used face-to-face interviews of 500 respondents aged 25 to 65 from Metro Manila and Cebu and Davao Cities. Some 54 percent of respondents expressed trust in the Office of the President, 12 points higher than local government units (44 percent) and the Supreme Court (41 percent). Trust in the Senate and the regional trial courts was at 37 percent, slightly higher than the Cabinet, which had a trust rating of 35 percent. The House of Representatives had a 32 percent trust score. Valte said they plan to build upon the Office of the President’s 54-percent trust rating. She said the Aquino administration wants to make government employees feel proud of their work. “It really starts from the top. Hopefully we are working on mag-spread siya pababa. Ang kasama natin sa pamahalaan lalo iba na pwede na lang, we want to make them proud of what they do," she said. Meanwhile, the Palace’s communications group gave itself a pat on the back for President Benigno Aquino III’s relatively higher trust ratings as shown in Pulse Asia’s latest survey. The Pulse Asia survey conducted between August 20 and September 2 showed Aquino enjoys big majority approval ratings of 77 percent and trust ratings of 75 percent. It was higher than the 71 percent trust rating in an earlier survey conducted May 21 to June 4, and matched the 75 percent trust rating he had last March. But Pulse Asia said this cannot be considered a significant improvement because of the survey's error margin. “We would like to think of course part ng trabaho namin is to get the good news out. Sa napapansin namin and with the help of our friends in media lumalabas ang good news ... We’d like to think nakapag-contribute kami sa pagtaas," Valte said. — ELR, GMA News