{"id":12563,"date":"2026-01-27T06:55:53","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T05:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/?p=12563"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:46:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:46:45","slug":"sara-duterte-maintains-lead-over-marcos-jr-in-trust-and-approval-as-corruption-scandals-deepen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/sara-duterte-maintains-lead-over-marcos-jr-in-trust-and-approval-as-corruption-scandals-deepen\/","title":{"rendered":"Sara Duterte maintains lead over Marcos Jr. in trust and approval as corruption scandals deepen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vice President Sara Duterte continues<\/a> to outpace President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in public approval and trust ratings, according to recent surveys.<\/p>\n

A Pulse Asia survey conducted in December 2025 found<\/a> that Marcos Jr. received a 34% approval rating and 32% trust rating, while nearly half of the respondents expressed disapproval and distrust. Sara Duterte, despite facing a plunder complaint over the use of confidential funds, recorded<\/a> higher figures with 56% approval and 54% trust.<\/p>\n

Marcos Jr.\u2019s ratings have shown<\/a> little recovery since September 2025, when allegations surrounding ghost and incomplete flood control projects intensified. The scandal, estimated<\/a> to involve 79 billion Pesos in losses over nearly a decade, has implicated<\/a> public works officials, contractors, and political allies, though arrests have so far been limited to lower-level figures.<\/p>\n

Marcos Jr. registered<\/a> his weakest support in Mindanao and the Visayas, as well as among the poorest Filipinos. Duterte, by contrast, enjoyed<\/a> overwhelming approval in Mindanao and maintained<\/a> majority trust among lower-income groups, even as her support softened slightly among the poorest class.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang downplayed<\/a> the survey results, with Palace press officer Claire Castro saying<\/a> the President remains unfazed, arguing that his decision to investigate anomalous flood control projects was necessary even if politically costly.<\/p>\n

Political observers say<\/a> Duterte\u2019s resilience has strengthened perceptions of her as the frontrunner for the presidency, especially as no clear successor has emerged from the Marcos Jr.\u2019s camp.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a separate Pulse Asia survey shows<\/a> that a majority of Filipinos support the immediate passage of an anti-dynasty law, though agreement is weakest in Mindanao. Despite constitutional provisions banning<\/a> political dynasties, Congress has yet to pass<\/a> an enabling law, and critics note that most proposed bills are authored by dynastic politicians themselves.<\/p>\n

Reinforcing calls for change, a coalition of reform-minded public officials, academics, and citizens, including Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, has launched<\/a> a renewed push for better anti-dynasty legislation, citing<\/a> the flood control scandal as evidence of systemic corruption linked to political families.<\/p>\n

The coalition called<\/a> for a citizen-led national dialogue on political dynasties and urged various networks and stakeholders to come together to develop a unified public stance on the issue, aiming at strengthening a democracy that serves the broader population rather than a select few.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Photo \u00a9 AMP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vice President Sara Duterte continues to outpace President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in public approval and trust ratings, according to recent surveys. A Pulse Asia survey conducted in December 2025 found that Marcos Jr. received a 34% approval rating and 32% trust rating, while nearly half of the respondents expressed disapproval and distrust. Sara Duterte, despite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73,58,59,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aktuelles-en","category-human-rights-news","category-internal-affairs","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12594,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12563\/revisions\/12594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amp.ngo\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}