MANILA - Filipinos gave President Ferdinand Marcos Jr high approval ratings on 11 out of 13 issues in a survey of his government's performance by leading Manila-based pollster Pulse Asia Research.

The results were released on Thursday, a day before Mr Marcos' 100th day in office.

The Marcos administration received its highest net approval rating of +75 for its calamity response, followed by +74 for controlling the spread of Covid-19, in the survey of 1,200 adults aged 18 and above conducted nationwide from Sept 17 to 21.

But public opinion plummeted when it came to two perennial problems: poverty and the rising prices of goods.

The government got a +13 net approval rating for its efforts to reduce poverty, with just 39 per cent of respondents saying they approved, against a 26 per cent disapproval rate (35 per cent were undecided).

The survey found that 66 per cent of adults felt that controlling inflation was an urgent concern. However, 42 per cent felt the Marcos government was not doing a good job in this aspect, versus 31 per cent who approved (27 per cent were undecided). This put the government's net approval rating at -11.

The past three months have seen a spike in living costs and the prices of basic goods in the Philippines, among the lasting effects of the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.

However, political analysts say the president is still in a honeymoon stage with Filipinos – 58.7 per cent of whom voted for him in the May election – which survey findings bore out.

Overall ratings of the administration's response to other national issues identified in the survey were positive:
Protecting Filipinos working overseas: +65
Promoting peace: +62
Fighting criminality: +58
Enforcing the rule of law: +53
Creating more jobs: +47
Stopping the destruction of the environment: +46
Increasing workers' pay: +46
Fighting graft and corruption: +45
Defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners: +43