The president’s perennially plunging popularity

What else is new when Gloria was not ever popular to start w/.
I think the mga kalaban ni Gloria are just napipikon na w/ her cuz no matter what noise they do & thanks very much to the media.
Gloria still goes ahead w/ her hard work focusing on the economy w/c will bring long term gains to society.
We are becoming a very shameful society of “professional fault finders”.
If the Pope should lead this country even he will not be spared w/ his own faults!!!!!
What is the point of highlighting unpopular survey results that are not anything new anyway.
It won’t make a difference if the people knew it or not.
But it will surely make a difference for those who have their own agendas to bring down the administration
Thanks to media those who wanting to bring down the administration have a vehicle to push ntheir selfish ends.
Also because perhaps media is nothing but a “prostitute” who is offered to the higest bidder.
I really don’t remebber the media ever inspiring people to do better or highlighting events that others can also do by themselves.
I know media is there to make people quarrel, saw intrigue, provide baised incomplete information, sensationalize matters, saw malicious ideas in people.
It’s sad that media really does not have high values.On the contrary it’s a tool for destroying.
The ideals about media are correct but the problem is it’s the people in media who are deeply immature to say it kindly

Holy Cow!!!! You do not see anything good from GMA. How about the corruption in Congress and the Judiciary?
How about the corruption in the media as blogger JOSELU said in one of his posts?

Can you give us the composition of SWS? Where does it get their fundings from? Or as one blogger asked: Where does the PCIJ gets its funding? I think you should establish your crediblity first before unleashing your “moral outrage” against the administration.

I do not stand to benefit from this blog. I have left the Philippines in year 2000, but somehow my Filipino heritage makes me think that it is my civic duty to participate in every debate that involves the Filipino people.

Gentlemen, please.

The blog entry is an analysis of Arroyo’s SWS net satisfaction ratings since 2004 and the events Malacanang faced at the time of the surveys. The graphs are provided for everyone to see and analyze. As for the news events, please be assured that we did not invent them.

As for those wanting to know more about PCIJ and its funding source, we refer you to http://www.pcij.org. As for our credibility, we’d rather let our body of work do the talking.

The websites of SWS, Pulse Asia, IPER and Mr. Casiple are also provided in the entry. We choose to let their work do the talking for them, too.

Politics is not showbiz. You cannot run a country by mere show up and gimmick. In the end the true measure of country’s leadership bottles down to economy and democracy. Economic gains are measured by bench marks or indicators.

Now who can challenge the achievements of this president? Fair and Square. The problem with us Filipinos is our attitude. We inflict dammaged to our own. We like gossips. We can never accept defeat. We are like a cancer cell in our own country. And irregardless of what level of education we attain most of remain rubbish…sheer rubbish.

Useless Lawyers, uselesse Educators, useless senators, useless congressmen!!!

Unscrupulous media! Disloyal military!

These are just a few example of what Filipinos are.

Is it difficult to understand why Gloria Arroyo has been rejected by the vast majority? Not at all.

From the very beginning, many have considered her an illegitimate president. As the joke goes, “Kailangan pa bang imemorize yan?”

How could you say those poll where credible, when they were finance by former opposition senator, why can you not mass people power if they are not satisfied with gloria, I think people have seen gloria as the lesser evil compare to those politician who want to replace her, Did you notice that Luneta prayer rally, they say at least 1 million warm body will be there, what they get 15000, all el shaddai. Until gloria is supported by middle class and upper class, nobody will succeed to topple her, my advise to Sen Trillanes, if you are planning a coup don’t plan it overnight and you will implement it the next day, that’s dreaming.Do you think a senior officer will follow the order of junior grade officer, it will be a chaos, its not reality what they ARE PLANNING.

jcc,

Let me just point out that there was a recent survey done by SWS, findings of which were the basis for analyzing Arroyo’s continuing dwindling satisfaction rating.

This only has the sense of a rehash to those who have the luxury of pontificating about this country from a comfortable distance, equating their vicarious experience of the Philippines with the real thing.

From where we are, the surveys, despite attempts to discredit them, have been valid indicators of the public sentiment toward this government. Why Arroyo continues to suffer from people’s dissatisfaction and distrust isn’t a situation that the media have brought upon her. If she is hobbled to this day by questions about her legitimacy as president (which has been the fodder for all sorts of challenges to her rule), it is because Arroyo has not faced and answered the issue squarely.

Instead, what we’ve seen since the “Hello, Garci” scandal are serial efforts to avoid, evade, and obstruct calls for her government to be held accountable not only for electoral fraud, but for serious allegations of corruption, abuse of power, and human rights violations. And what has been the Arroyo government’s patent reply? To pervert the rule of law by hiding and intimidating witnesses, invoking executive privilege, causing the filing of sham impeachment complaints, dangling pork and other perks to win support from congressmen and local officials.

From IMPSA to ZTE, has anyone been made accountable for all the corruption scandals that have plagued this government?

Should all this just be swept under the rug simply because, in your perverse logic, all previous presidents were also corrupt anyway? No wonder, this country has not successfully addressed the never-ending vicious cycle of corruption because there are those who would rather tolerate bad governance, who would not see fault and even justify the transactional politics of payoffs and patronage of this day as par for the course.

And there are also those who would also invoke the Arroyo mantra of “let’s move on” since the economy is supposedly improving. Even if one makes of a strong peso as a gauge of an improving economy (which it isn’t), how can that be applauded when those who are largely responsible for that — our toiling OFWs who have been sending record billion-dollar remittances to keep the economy afloat — are the ones ironically most hurt by it?

I wonder to what depths of moral depravity have we sunk that our options for leaders should boil down to a choice between lesser evils — lesser, arguably, but evil just the same. If you are not outraged, or just even bothered, by the allegations of massive corruption and abuse of power, don’t take it against those who do. We cannot be biased in their favor. From the time it was set up, the PCIJ has tried to expose wrongdoing in government, in the hope of helping instill in those who wield power such values of good governance as transparency and accountability.

If you must know, the PCIJ’s — and the media’s — “incorrigible fault-finding” has helped oust a corrupt president (but who enjoyed luxurious detention while on trial and was eventually pardoned by Arroyo barely two months after his conviction for plunder), forced erring public officials to resign or be removed from office, reversed bad government policy or created one in its absence, and focused attention on issues that don’t get prominently reported on.

Yet for all your own fault-finding in what we post on our blog, what have you got to show? Weren’t you the one who was so quick to accuse us of censorship where there was none? Who would summarily reduce the discussion to a labeling game just because we present aspects of
reality that do not conform to your version of it? Apparently, we cannot expect much.

major erratum: ( grammar and spelling not included)

“the light is totally different from your self-imposed simplicity”.

ryebosco;

simpleng tao rin ako. pero ang korupsyon ay hindi simpleng problema at wala itong simpleng solusyon. naglakas loob ako na ganito: imulat natin ang ating mga paslit na sanggol sa marangal na pamumuhay, may tamang konsepto ng karangalan, integridad at sa paniniwalang ang pamayanang katungkulan ay isang pananagutan sa taong bayan — at sa kanilang paglaki hindi sila matulad sa kasalukuyang nanunungkulan.

para simpleng solusyon din ito, pero ang tutuo, mahirap itong gampanan at pangmatagalang proceso ito.

maligayang pasko

jj;

Admitting that you were only citing the 2004 statistics to put the recent statistics about GMA’s dwindling rating, yet it does not answer my question what did you do to report the corruption in Congress and the Judiciary, or for that matter the corruption in the media?

Have you ever wondered, as an investigative reporter you claimed to be, why SMS was only conducting a satisfaction rating of GMA and not Congress or the Judiciary? Why are these two branches of government exempt from SMS survey when they are also run by less than honorable people and wield tremendous power like the executive department?

If there is one survey by SMS on the other two branches of the government, did PCIJ report it?

You did not put into right context my vulgar language as a translation of “sexed-up” statement of a British scientist about the Iraq’s Weapons of Mass Destruction. You want to convey the impression that the phrase “sexed-up” is acceptable only in Western press but is considered vulgar by PCIJ’s standard.

My emotion is what is called by Senator Miriam Defenson Santiago as “righteous indignation”. No malice intended and had you tried to put it in the right context, it was an expression of discomfort over your unbalanced reporting.

In addition, while you gloat over of being able to topple the corrupt administration of Estrada, you facilitated the taking over of another yet corrupt administration.

Merry Christmas

BS,

You keep misreading my posts.

Personally I don’t go by the figures when it comes to a president’s popularity. You can make a sound decision yet unpopular. Trapos prepared to be popular not trying to make any unpopular decision because they need the masa to rally behind them and gain their votes.

Being popular doesn’t mean that your a good leader. I don’t have to go by the list of leaders who are unpopular but great they have become as told by history itself.

I also would not discount that being popular is indeed an advantage for a leader but that won’t serve as a yardstick to measure a leaders performance. Our economy is making gains and I would attribute it to the unpopular decisions made by the president. The president may have committed mistakes and her decisions can be easily critisize considering that she is holding the most powerful position in the country. But the question is… who would decide what is better or good for this country… still the president.

A leader is elected to represent its people and to decide in their behalf on issues that could affect or make an impact to the entire populace. The president as she puts it is as strong as she can be despite of the criticism from her opponent. Let us all be more objective with the way we view things.

The president is still human capable of making mistakes. Let us support our leaders and put our collective effort to bring in prosperity and unity to this country.

Merry Christmass!!!

TO ALL:

I shall write 30 and bow out from this website not out of despise to anyone. Honestly, I admire the manner by which the PCIJ conduct the entirety of its contents. Despite occasional overdose of self-righteousness, and overzealous self-promotion as a mouthpiece of reason in decency in government, these faults are tolerable compared to the faults of other websites and mainstream media.

I found the website likable upon reading an article about Dean Salvador Carlota, my 1976 mentor in Agency and Partnership in the college of law.

For one month I have been posting at PCIJ, but as I do, I was actually reviving the fire in my belly which I have long abandoned and considered my past. I have turned from journalism, then law, then have reinvented myself when we come to America and turned to electronics and computers.

I have not found full-satisfaction in my present endeavor, but I am trying to have my peace now and I am with my family.

As a former journalist I admire people who disagreed with us and knowing the people and their background behind PCIJ, I know they would rather have me as one of their consistent bloggers rather than some personalities who almost instinctively cheer on everything it says and posts.

Press Freedom is best served in the free flow of ideas, even of ideas we disliked. The occasional abuse in its exercise, serves as the crucible that purifies it rather than as something that will smother it.

I shall bow out from your site because I do not want to get back my previous life.

To my “comrades-in-pen” Bob Malit and JOSELU… you are admirable personalities, so are Alecks, JJ, Aisa and the whole staff of PCIJ.

Good Luck to all of you.… Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Just want to add up… why do most Filipinos are fond of complaining without taking action. The problem in this country is we love to complain but refuse to take action.

Complaining is one of the Actions inherent to the citizens to air their grievances against their government and responsible governments always consider complaints and are the ones who takes actions…It also inherent upon the subjects to take further action if the government they put to serve their interest refuses to take actions on their complaints…

There is not one solution to corruption in one single bundle as one person in here demanded to know. To ask and wait for someone to post up the problems of Philippine society and a solution to consider, IS ONE OF THE PROBLEMS of why our society is the way it is today. Call it stagnation of the mind and actions or complacency. ARROGANCE also plays a role in our corruption starting from the very common tao. It’s easy, so easy to demand someone to write down what they feel is the solution, only to be criticized or have that idea thrown into the garbage because it’s not “practical,” enough. Start by not throwing your garbage on the street, by not bribing officers and officials, start by not urinating in places where it says, “Bawal umihi dito,” and start by organizing your neighborhood to start cleaning up the streets in your neighborhood of garbage, drugs, prostitution, so that others will follow your example, so that the government will start following your example once everyone else has done the same and its all up to Manila to follow suit. The list can go on, but its up to the individual to do his/her part, be it small or big to get the ball running.