MANILA, Philippines – While dissatisfaction with President Rodrigo Duterte’s performance grew among the Philippines’ poorest, the wealthiest Filipinos gave the country’s leader an “excellent” satisfaction rating.

This is according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Wednesday, October 9, and conducted from September 27 to 30.

The middle-class and richest Filipinos, Class ABC, gave Duterte his highest ever rating among their class, with 79% of respondents in this grouping saying they are satisfied with Duterte, compared to the 76% in June, the last time the SWS conducted a survey on satisfaction.

This increase led to an upgrade of Duterte’s net rating among Class ABC, from +58 to +70, an increase by 12 points, landing the President in the rarely achieved “excellent” score range.

Dissatisfaction among the richest Filipinos was halved, from 18% in June to just 9% in September.

How about the poorest Filipinos? It was only among Class ABC Filipinos where Duterte enjoyed an increase in satisfaction rating in terms of economic classes.

Among the poorest, Class E, and the masa, Class D, the President experienced declines, though his net score remained in the “very good” range.

His net satisfaction rating among the country’s most impoverished citizens fell by 11 points, from +68 to +57, still classified as “very good.”

In September, only 73% said they were satisfied compared to the 81% who said the same in June. Dissatisfaction among Class E rose from 13% to 16%.

Among Class D, his rating fell only slightly, by 2 points, from +68 to +66.

For the survey, the SWS conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,800 Filipino adults nationwide. It reported sampling error margins of ±2.3% for national percentages, ±4% each for Balance Luzon and Mindanao, and ±6% each for Metro Manila and the Visayas.

It was in the month of September when news broke of a polio outbreak and public outrage simmered over the early release of heinous crime convicts due to good conduct time allowance and corruption in the Bureau of Corrections.

In late September, public attention turned toward the “ninja cops” controversy.

What is Duterte’s overall rating? There was a slight decline in Duterte’s satisfaction rating in September, even if some 8 in 10 Filipinos continue to be happy with his performance.

The survey found that 78% of Filipinos are satisfied with Duterte. In June, 80% of Filipinos said they were satisfied.

With the percentage of undecided respondents unchanged and unsatisfied respondents up by one point, Duterte’s net satisfaction rating for September is +65. This is 3 points lower than his +68 score in June, his personal best.

Despite the decrease, Duterte maintained his “very good” score since the SWS’ range for this grade is from +50 to +69.

How did Duterte fare per region? The most interesting movements in Duterte’s satisfaction ratings per geographic region were seen in the Visayas and Mindanao, regions with which the President enjoys close links.

In his bailiwick of Mindanao, his satisfaction rating fell by 5 points, from +81 in June to +76 in September. But the decline was not enough to drag his score out of the “excellent” range.

In the Visayas, where he was born, Duterte scored his second highest satisfaction rating by region, with +75. This is a 9-point jump from his +66 score in June.

But it was a different story in Balance of Luzon. The President’s net rating fell by 11 points here, from +65 to +54, still “very good.”

In Metro Manila, Duterte benefited from a 7-point increase in net satisfaction rating – from +59 to +66, keeping him within the “very good” range. – Rappler.com