GMA rating falls even before ‘Ondoy’

MANILA – Even before typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng hit the Philippines, President Arroyo’s dropped further to a negative 38. Twenty three percent satisfaction against 62 percent saying they were dissatisfied with her performance, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey covering the third quarter showed.

The result of the survey, fielded over Sept. 18 to 21, was a deterioration from the last recent SWS survey held in July showing Arroyo with a negative 31 net rating.

The September result matched Arroyo’s second to the worst rating which she also attained in a June 2008 poll. Her worst showing was in a survey held in July last year when she reached a record negative 50 rating.
The Palace immediately threw the blame on media and her critics for Arroyo’s consistently negative rating.
The inability of the Arroyo government to cope with typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng is expected to drop her ratings further down.

Arroyo spokesman Gary Olivar pointed to the media and Arroyo’s critics as among the influential forces which drove the public to develop a negative image “against the government.”

“I did say that media are a factor that influences these findings in the surveys and obviously this is outside of our control in an open society like ours. And, of course, by media, I don?t necessarily mean the folks in this room (referring to Palace reporters), they are the people who write the headlines or desk editors and, particularly, the people who write the columns in the opinion pages,” he said.

The survey was also taken at the height of the controversy over the President’s travels abroad and also we were catching the sentiments following the death of the late President (Corazon) Aquino, so all of these things, I think, conspired to produce that particular result in that particular survey,” Olivar said.
But, all the same, Olivar said Arroyo was never bothered by such reports echoing her usual remark that she did not become president just to be popular.

The best rating achieved by Arroyo during her eight-year term was a positive 30 in March 2004.