VICE-PRESIDENT Maria Leonor G. Robredo’s net trust rating jumped 16 points to “very good” +52, according to the Fourth Quarter 2017 Social Weather Survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations on Dec. 8-16 last year.

Ms. Robredo’s net trust of +52 (66% much trust minus 14% little trust) compares with her good +36 (6% much trust, 21% little trust, correctly rounded) in the SWS survey of September 2017. SWS classifies net trust ratings as follows: +70 and above, “excellent”; +50 to +69, “very good”; +30 to +49, “good”; +10 to +29, “moderate”; +9 to -9, “neutral”; -10 to -29, “poor”; -30 to -49, “bad”; -50 to -69, “very bad”; -70 and below, “execrable.”

Ms. Robredo’s net trust rating began with a moderate +29 when the polling group first surveyed it in December 2015. It peaked to very good +63 and +58 in June and September the next year, before dropping to good levels from December 2016 to September 2017, amid her criticisms of the conduct of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s anti-drug campaign.

Ms. Robredo’s net-trust ratings improved to very good in the areas of the Visayas, Balance Luzon, and Mr. Duterte’s home region Mindanao, while it stayed moderate in Metro Manila.

In Mindanao, particularly, trust in Ms. Robredo leapt 26 points and two grades to very good +50, compared with moderate +24 in September last year.

Trust in Ms. Robredo also jumped 16 points and one grade in the Visayas (very good +64) and Balance Luzon (very good +56), but remained at a moderate +27 in Metro Manila, if still up by 5 points.

Among Classes D and E, where trust in Ms. Robredo has ranged between good and very good, she jumped 16 points to very good +53 in Class D and 18 points to very good +52 in Class E.

In terms of educational attainment — where trust in Ms. Robredo has also been in the “good” to “very good” levels among respondents who have finished up to some elementary, some high school and some college — she jumped 18 points among high school graduates (very good+51) and 19 points among non-elementary graduates (very good+66) and rose 8 points among elementary graduates (very good+52).

Ms. Robredo’s biggest leap, however, was by 36 points among college graduates (good+43), in sharp contrast to her net trust in this group of neutral +7 in September and moderate+15 in June last year .

SWS also noted that Ms. Robredo’s net trust rose by one grade to very good among both men and women as well as the 45-54 and 55-above age groups, while remaining good among the 18-24, 25-34, and 35-44 age groups.

The survey, which shows an overall spike in Ms. Robredo’s ratings, comes amid a brewing controversy over the planned abolition of her office in the constitutional shift to federalism that Congress is set to tackle.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide: 300 each in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao (sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao).

Interviewed by reporters about the new survey, Ms. Robredo said in part: “(N)apakalaking bagay nito para sa amin kasi gustong sabihin, kahit may ganitong limitasyon, nakakabigay pa rin ng parang positibong epekto iyong mga paghihirap na ginagawa namin — lalong lalo siguro iyong aming Angat Buhay program….” (This is significant for us because, even with our limitations, it shows there is a positive effect in what we’re struggling to achieve — especially through our Angat Buhay program….) — with Camille A. Aguinaldo

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