35% of Pinoys believe Arroyo's subsidy program a gimmick for 2010 - survey

35% of Pinoys believe Arroyo's subsidy program a gimmick for 2010 - survey


GMANews.TV
GMANews.TV - Monday, July 28

MANILA, Philippines - At least 35 percent of the Filipinos nationwide believe that the Arroyo government’s P8 billion subsidy program is part of the administration's politicking strategy for the 2010 polls.

The Pulse Asia survey, conducted from June 1 to 4 and involved 1,200 respondents, also showed that despite benefiting more than half of the Filipino population, the program hardly changed the performance and trust ratings of President Arroyo, which remained at a negative level.

The budget for the said program, which included subsidy for the National Food Authority (NFA) rice of P18.25 per kilo, is culled from value added tax on oil.

"Despite the various efforts of the Arroyo administration to help poor Filipinos, it appears that President Arroyo is not getting much mileage from these subsidies as she registers basically the same performance and trust ratings among those who received at least one subsidy in the past quarter and those who did not," the survey said.

Based on the second quarter survey, 22 percent are satisfied with the performance of the President as against the 48 percent that disapproved of her performance in the last quarter, resulting in a net approval performance rating of negative 26.

This is a slight improvement from the negative 28 approval performance rating of the President in March and way below the negative 4 approval performance rating of Arroyo in July last year.

The net approval performance rating of the President is highest in the Visayas with positive 4 as against the negative 30, negative 27 and negative 48 net performance ratings of Arroyo in Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, and Mindanao, respectively.

The net trust rating of the President also showed an improvement from negative 38 in March to negative 34 in July after 19 percent expressed trust for the President as against the 53 that distrusts her.

The net trust rating, however, is still below the negative 12 percent trust rating of the President in July 2007.

The net trust rating of President Arroyo remains at the negative level with negative 30 in the National Capital Region, negative 35 in the rest of Luzon, negative 5 in Visayas and negative 52 in Mindanao.

The survey further revealed that at least 55 percent of the Filipinos had admitted receiving at least one or more subsidy in the last three months as against the 45 percent that says they have not received or availed of any.

Of those who said they got some form of subsidy from the government, 49 percent said this is through the P18.25 NFA rice, while 9 percent said it was through the one-time P500 lifeline subsidy for those who consume electricity of 100 kilowatts or less.

Another 6 percent said they got fertilizer subsidy from the government and the remaining 2 percent received a P1,500 subsidy under the "Food-for-School Program." - GMANews.TV