MANILA — Former President Rodrigo Duterte's administration fared better in performance ratings compared to the government of his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in their early days in office, Pulse Asia said on Friday.

Citing surveys that the pollster ran at the start of the 2 administrations, Pulse Asia president Ronald Holmes said that though Marcos won by a majority vote, "The Duterte Administration had better performance ratings at the start."

"Maybe this is reflective that there’s what, a lesser appreciation, more subdued expectation with regard to Marcos on the part of the public, that the majority support doesn’t translate to higher performance ratings on addressing issues," he said at a virtual town hall organized by Stratbase ADR.

“Given the difficulties that we’re facing right now, it’s not the same as Duterte who really just signaled that his intent really is to solve criminality and we know that the crime rates is also increasing right now,” Holmes added.

At the start of the Duterte administration, it enjoyed majority approval scores (51 to 89 percent) on all 12 issues on which its performance was rated, according to a September 2016 Pulse Asia survey.

Meanwhile, a Pulse Asia survey released on Marcos’ 98th day in office showed that while the government enjoyed positive scores for 11 out of 13 issues, it got a negative 11 net approval rating on inflation and an overall score of 13 on curbing poverty.

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Holmes also noted that Duterte remained popular for his whole term, while his predecessor Benigno Aquino III started to see his popularity drop about midway through his presidency.

“It took about 2.5 years for his performance ratings to really significantly change. I don’t know whether Bongbong can carry through in the same manner given that the conditions are really quite difficult now," he said.

Holmes' statement comes as public approval of the government’s performance in dealing with some of the country’s most urgent concerns fell in September compared to June 2022.

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Holmes noted that government rating declined on the following issues.

- Controlling the spread of COVID (78 percent from 85 percent)
- Promoting peace in the country (69 percent from 76 percent)
- Protecting the welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers (68 percent from 81 percent)
- Fighting criminality (67 percent from 84 percent)
- Enforcing the law (62 percent from 70 percent)

He noted, however, that the Marcos administration fared better than the Duterte government terms of job creation. Its approval ratings for that category was at 59 percent, compared to the Duterte administration's 52 percent.

Government ratings also improved in terms of increasing the pay of workers (59 percent from 56 percent), reducing poverty (39 percent from 37 percent), and controlling inflation (31 percent from 30 percent).