President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. insists the country will emerge stronger from the flood control scandal that is now drowning his administration, even as the latest public opinion survey suggests the Filipino people may not be inclined to wait for the recovery he promises.

On Thursday, Marcos admitted that the corruption in flood control projects nationwide has been “disruptive,” giving the country and its citizens a difficult time. 

He likened his anti-corruption push to a surgeon opening up the human body and taking out a tumor — a metaphor meant to reassure a nation increasingly skeptical that the pain will ever lead to healing.

“We are trying to change the entire system. And when you have to excise the cancer out of such a complicated system, you need to do some very major surgery,” he said. 

“And to do that, and when you do that, you will bleed. And that is what we had to go through. We had to. I am sorry that the people suffered because of it, but it had to be done,” he added.

Marcos stressed that if he had not exposed the anomalies, the entrenched corruption would have continued unchecked. 

“We have to go through all that pain, go through that difficulty, that anguish the country is going through now,” he said. “But we are Filipinos. We may be bleeding now, but we will also feel very, very good.”

‘Unhappy’

Still, the national pulse tells a different story.

A recent WR Numero survey reported by the ANC news channel showed that Marcos’ satisfaction rating fell to its lowest since he took office, plunging to 21 percent in November 2025. 

The number represents a 14-percentage-point drop from August — the steepest decline since February — and places him among the most unpopular Philippine leaders in the post-EDSA era. 

Nearly half of Filipinos, or 47 percent, expressed dissatisfaction with his performance, the highest disapproval rating he has received since assuming the presidency.

“You clearly see here that for more Filipinos, in fact, close to the majority at 47 percent, they are unhappy with the President’s performance and only a few are happy or satisfied,” WR Numero president and CEO Cleve Arguelles told ANC.

Younger Filipinos are the most disillusioned. Among citizens aged 30 and below, dissatisfaction reached a staggering 64 percent — a troubling sign for a president who once positioned himself as a modernizing leader for a youthful nation. 

Meanwhile, satisfaction “peaked” among seniors 60 and older, with only 41 percent approving of Marcos’ performance. Filipinos aged 31 to 59 are “split” in their views, the survey showed.

The generational divide underscores the depth of frustration over the flood control scandal, which has now implicated not just Marcos’ allies but members of his own family. 

Former government officials have linked First Lady Liza Marcos to alleged irregularities in rice and onion importations and tagged Rep. Sandro Marcos in supposed budget insertions — claims they both deny.

The President insists that his administration knows the way forward. “Between myself and those who are helping me and advising me, I think we know how,” he said. 

‘Worth it’

“So it’s not as if we are lost and we do not know what we are going to do. We know what we are going to do. And we will continue this campaign on corruption. We will continue our campaign on this abuse and this entitlement that has shocked everyone, myself included,” he stressed.

He hoped that, once the investigations conclude, the Filipinos will affirm that the struggle was “worth it.” 

“That is what we are hoping for. It took time to do it, but I really think, I mean, if we work 24/7 like we always have, I think we can do it,” he said.

But hope is not the commodity in shortest supply —time is. The sharp drop in approval raises the unspoken question now hanging over Malacañang: Will the President outlast the scandal?

Earlier, Marcos vowed that those behind the anomalies would be jailed by Christmas, including the so-called “big fish.” 

Yet the public — the same one he describes as “bleeding” — appears less concerned with his surgical metaphors and more with whether the surgeon himself is still fit to operate.