The latest PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. survey revealed that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. is highly expected to perform well during his first 100 days in office.

In the 2022 PAHAYAG Second Quarter Survey conducted from June 16 to 22, 68 percent of the respondents said that they expect Marcos to perform “well” or “very well” in his first 100 days as leader of the country.

At least 14 percent of respondents said that they expect Marcos to perform “poorly” or “very poorly,” while 11 percent said they expect him to perform “neither poorly nor well.” Of the respondents, seven percent were unsure.

“Our survey suggests that roughly two out of three Filipinos expect President Bongbong Marcos to perform well during the first 100 days of his presidency. President Marcos Jr. will have to hit the ground running from Day One to live up to these expectations,” said Atty. Aureli Sinsuat, the Executive Director of PUBLiCUS, in a news release on Wednesday.

In the said survey, the respondents also ranked economy, jobs, and education as the three most important sectors that Marcos should focus on.

“Economic development, job creation, and education reform are not issues that can be completely addressed over the course of 100 days. However, public perception on the Marcos Jr. administration could be expected to remain relatively positive if these top-of-mind issues are prioritized by the incoming president and his team during their first few months in office,” Sinsuat added.

Sinsuat also underlined that the respondents showed support for the continuation of five landmark programs of the Duterte administration.

The survey revealed that 79 percent of respondents said that they approve of the continuation of “Build, Build, Build,” the program to accelerate infrastructure. This garnered the highest approval rating among the 14 issues examined in the survey.

Meanwhile, 73 percent of the respondents said that they support the continuation of the “war on illegal drugs,” while 68 percent showed support for the continuation of “independent foreign policy.”

The continuation of the “Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) transition” earned support from 64 percent of the respondents while the continuation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) earned an approval rating of 56 percent.

Sinsuat said that with Duterte’s popularity, the significant number of respondents supporting the continuation of his projects is no longer surprising.

“While the level of policy continuity between the outgoing and incoming administrations remains to be seen, it is reasonable to believe that public opinion on the Marcos Jr. administration will be influenced, at least in part, by its ability to continue and improve upon at least some of the Duterte administration’s more popular flagship programs,” Sinsuat added.

The 1,500 respondents who participated in the survey are registered Filipino voters and were randomly sampled by PureSpectrum, a US-based panel marketplace with a multinational presence, from their national panel of more than 200,000 Filipinos. The sample-wide margin of error is +/- 3 percent.

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