President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s approval rating remains in negative territory and, much like the sliding peso — which is trading at around 59.9 to the US dollar — reflects eroding confidence as Filipinos grapple with a weaker currency and stubbornly high prices. Pulse Asia’s latest survey shows Marcos with a 36‑percent approval rating against 45 percent disapproval.

In contrast, Vice President Sara Duterte has kept a solid 55‑percent approval rating and majority backing in key regions and classes, underscoring how her political stock has stayed relatively firm even as the President’s numbers — and the peso — struggle to gain ground.

The latest survey, conducted from 27 February to 2 March, also found that 44 percent of respondents distrust President Marcos, 35 percent trust him, and 21 percent are undecided.

The poll highlights the widening public confidence gap between the country’s two highest officials, raising questions about political perceptions amid ongoing government initiatives and policy decisions.

“Across geographic and socioeconomic subgroupings, the only majority approval score for the President is recorded in the rest of Luzon (54 percent). In contrast, disapproval of Marcos prevails in the Visayas (61 percent), Mindanao (73 percent), and Class E (60 percent),” Pulse Asia said of the President’s performance.

It added: “Almost half of those belonging to Class D (47 percent) also have a negative assessment of the presidential performance. While the same approval and disapproval ratings are posted by the President in Metro Manila (both at 42 percent), a three-way divide may be observed in Class ABC (41 percent approval, 29 percent indecision, and 30 percent disapproval).”

​By contrast, Duterte enjoys more trust and stronger job approval from Filipino adults.

“Duterte enjoys small to big majority approval ratings in the Visayas (72 percent), Mindanao (95 percent), Class D (57 percent), and Class E (81 percent),” Pulse Asia said. She also received a 55‑percent approval rating for her work over the past three months, with 27 percent disapproving and 18 percent undecided.

Approval and disapproval figures in Class ABC are more mixed, but Duterte still posts a plurality backing in that socioeconomic group, the survey showed. Her latest ratings come amid an ongoing impeachment case that has kept her under intense political scrutiny.

Inflation: Most urgent concern

The same survey found that nearly six in 10 Filipinos want the government to act immediately to control rising prices, making inflation the country’s most pressing national concern. Pulse Asia reported that 59 percent of Filipino adults believe the national government should act urgently to curb inflation, making it the top concern among 18 national issues tracked in the survey.

​Inflation was also the most frequently cited first‑ and second‑mentioned concern, at 26 percent and 23 percent, respectively, with the level of public concern virtually unchanged from the previous survey conducted in December 2025.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (psa)recently reported that the country’s headline inflation rate rose to 2.4 percent in February 2026, up from 2.0 percent in January and higher than the 2.1 percent recorded a year earlier. According to the PSA, the uptick was mainly driven by faster price increases in food and non‑alcoholic beverages, which rose to 1.8 percent from 1.1 percent the previous month. Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, as well as restaurants and accommodation services, were also among the largest contributors to overall inflation.

Graft, corruption, too

Graft and corruption in government ranked second among urgent national issues, cited by 47 percent of respondents, followed by the need to increase workers’ pay at 36 percent. Corruption also emerged as the most common third‑mentioned response at 19 percent.

​Other top concerns included reducing poverty (21 percent), creating more jobs (21 percent), tackling the sale and use of illegal drugs (21 percent), and curbing criminality (17 percent). Filipinos also cited helping farmers (14 percent), enforcing the rule of law (11 percent), addressing involuntary hunger (10 percent), protecting the environment (9 percent), and promoting peace (9 percent) as key concerns.

Meanwhile, the least cited issues were responding to the needs of calamity‑hit areas (8 percent), reducing taxes (7 percent), helping small entrepreneurs (5 percent), protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (3 percent), defending national territorial integrity (2 percent), and preparing for terrorist threats (1 percent).

Across geographic areas and socioeconomic classes, inflation was the only issue cited by a majority of respondents nationwide. Concern about rising prices reached 53 percent in the Visayas and 62 percent in both the rest of Luzon and Mindanao, and ranged from 57 percent to 63 percent across all social classes.

The March 2026 survey results were largely unchanged from those recorded in December 2025, indicating that inflation has remained the dominant public concern in recent months.