Vice President Leni Robredo. INQUIRER file photo
MANILA, Philippines鈥擳he spokesperson of Vice President Leni Robredo sought to clarify the math involved in latest polling results that showed the second highest official of the land declining in popularity.
Barry Gutierrez, speaking for the Vice President, said the appearance of a decline in Robredo鈥檚 satisfaction rating based on results of a new survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) was all that鈥攁ppearance.
Gutierrez said if you do the math, Robredo would have a satisfaction rating of 50 percent or higher.
He blamed what he said were metrics being used by SWS for the appearance of low satisfaction for Robredo.
The SWS survey results for June 2019 showed Robredo having a net satisfaction rating of plus 28, down 14 points from plus 42 in March 2019. In Pulse Asia, the Vice President鈥檚 approval rating was 55 percent.
鈥淵ou have to distinguish between the Pulse approach and the SWS approach,鈥� Gutierrez said. 鈥淧ulse just releases approval, indifferent鈥攗ndecided鈥攁nd disapproval. SWS creates a net,鈥� Gutierrez said at an interview at Robredo鈥檚 Quezon City reception office.
This method, Gutierrez said,聽 supposedly gives an appearance that Robredo鈥檚 satisfaction rating in SWS was lower than in Pulse Asia, which is actually the other way around, as Robredo scored a 57 rating in SWS, two points higher than her 55 percent rating in Pulse Asia.
鈥淪o the movements look big,鈥� Gutierrez said in a mix of English and Filipino. 鈥淥bviously, if your approval goes down let鈥檚 say by two points and transferred to disapproval, the net change is four points,鈥� Gutierrez said. 鈥淪o it seems bigger.鈥�
鈥淏ut if you look at the numbers of approval alone, more or less they鈥檙e the same in Pulse and SWS,鈥� Gutierrez said. 鈥淪WS is in fact even higher. Actually, SWS is 57 percent. So it鈥檚 within the two percent if the margin of error is plus or minus 2 percent,鈥� hensaid.
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Gutierrez also claimed that there were no drastic changes in Robredo鈥檚 satisfaction ratings since she took office in 2016.聽 SWS鈥� graph showed that the Vice President鈥檚 ratings have swung between the plus 30 and plus 50 mark.
鈥淎nd if you look at the VP鈥檚 numbers since 2016, it鈥檚 basically stayed the same,鈥� Gutierrez said. 鈥淪ometimes it falls by 5 percent then it will rise by 5 percent,鈥� he said.
鈥淪o it鈥檚 not really something that we鈥檙e concerned with,鈥� Gutierrez said. He said the numbers were still high 鈥済iven the amount of effort that has been poured into attempting to destroy her credibility online.鈥�
鈥淒espite that, we鈥檝e maintained the numbers,鈥� Gutierrez said.
鈥淚n fact, I feel that it鈥檚 even gone up,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or me, it鈥檚 a huge gain and testament鈥� to people鈥檚 appreciation of Robredo鈥檚 antipoverry program Angat Buhay. /TSB