“When it came to issues that respondents were asked to rate on how the administration responded, Mangahas chose to dwell on inflation which he claimed to be a “downgrade” while saying at the same time that it is on a neutral level.

The head of polling firm Social Weather Stations (SWS) sounded thick with a political tone in a television interview regarding the results of the SWS survey showing a 72 percent satisfaction rating for the Duterte administration.

SWS already has a fuzzy way of presenting the results of its surveys which it gives out as a +58 “net” satisfaction on President Rody Duterte’s government since it deducts the dissatisfied from those with a favorable view among respondents.

In the same manner as its netting system that dilutes the overwhelming positive vote, SWS president Mahar Mangahas downplayed the score in the survey.

Mangahas claimed the results of 27 to 30 June survey showed the Duterte administration’s ratings merely matched the good grades of Noynoy.

The actual figures, however, showed Noynoy with far less numbers during comparative survey periods in the two Presidents’ terms.

In the September 2011 survey, Noynoy got a +56 against a +58 for Rody in September 2017; it was +56 for Aquino in December 2011 and +70 for Duterte in 2017; +46 for Aquino in March 2012 and +58 for Rody in March 2018 and +44 for Aquino in May 2012 and +58 for Duterte in the latest survey results.

He stressed that the big jump in the satisfaction rating of an incumbent administration actually occurred in 2010 when Aquino was elected into office.

“If you look at the long history, that’s where the gap is. It’s not in 2016, it’s in 2010. And that means, that for the time being, the Duterte administration is matching that good record of the Noynoy Aquino administration,” Mangahas said.

Last year, Malacañang slammed the SWS for supposedly coming up with “leading and pointed” questions in its survey showing that a majority of Filipinos doubt police accounts on drug-related killings.

The credibility of SWS was again put into question when it came out with survey results in July indicating an 11-point plunge in the satisfaction rating of President Duterte, from 56 percent in the first quarter of 2018 to 45 percent in the second quarter.

A week later, a Pulse Asia survey showed Rody’s trust rating went up by 9 points, from 78 percent in March to 87 percent in June while his performance approval rating went up by 8 points, from 80 percent in March to 88 percent in June.

Mangahas also attributed the 84 percent satisfaction rating of the Duterte administration in Mindanao to “parochialism.”

“Well, that’s parochialism, that’s because the President is from Mindanao, that’s very obvious,” he said.

“The actual figures, however, showed Noynoy with far less numbers during comparative survey periods in the two Presidents’ terms.

Mangahas likewise did not put much significance that the administration received an 86 percent satisfaction rating from class ABC “because they are so few and those numbers can come up and down so much.”

Even Duterte’s recent signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law has little to do with his sustained high ratings in Mindanao, according to Mangahas, since “the President is Christian.”

“Well, the Bangsamoro signing and everything, that’s good, of course, but it’s not just the Bangsamoro people, it’s Mindanaoans as a whole. Remember, the President is Christian, so I’m sure his constituency in Mindanao is heavily Christian,” Mangahas said.

When it came to issues that respondents were asked to rate on how the administration responded, Mangahas chose to dwell on inflation which he claimed to be a “downgrade” while saying at the same time that it is on a neutral level.

“It’s already a downgrade which happened already three months ago, so this is just the continuation of the neutral last March. So that puts this as a six-month problem already, not a three-month problem,” he said.

Not mentioned by Mangahas was majority of respondents or more than 50 percent gave a satisfaction vote on 17 percent of the 20 issues they were asked to grade with 72 percent giving the thumbs up on building and maintenance of public works and 71 percent on helping the poor.

The fact that the mid-term elections are just around the corner and that the SWS mostly has yellow patrons may have clouded the objectivity of the chief pollster.