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Can Philippines’ Marcos Jnr recover from lower approval ratings by leaning closer to the US?
- Marcos Jnr’s meeting with President Joe Biden and PM Fumio Kishida in the US could be a springboard for him to boost his approval ratings
- His ratings fell the most in Mindanao, where the Philippines is eyeing a second base to forge closer military cooperation with the US and Japan
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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s approval ratings may have nosedived ahead of his landmark trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida next week but he has a chance to restore public faith in his administration through a recalibrated foreign policy.
Analysts say Marcos Jnr could turn things around by leaning into his growing alliance with the US and other countries against China.
The president’s approval and trust ratings plunged by 13 percentage points and 16 percentage points to 55 per cent and 57 per cent, respectively, in the first quarter of 2024, according to a non-commissioned quarterly survey by Pulse Asia. The results were a reversal from the fourth quarter of last year when his ratings rose marginally.
The survey released on Wednesday by the private pollster, which had previously predicted Marcos Jnr’s 2022 landslide election win, was conducted with 1,200 respondents nationwide from March 10 to March 16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 per cent.
Marcos Jnr and his cousin House Speaker Martin Romualdez’s bid to amend the 1987 Constitution, as well as the president’s frequent foreign trips that yielded few tangible gains for the Philippines, probably contributed to his lower ratings, University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco told This Week in Asia.
“I think the cha-cha [charter change] bid and the travels affected his ratings,” Franco said.
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