ONLY TWO months in the Senate Presidency, Senator Vicente C. Sotto III led in a second-quarter poll on net satisfaction among the country’s top officials, conducted by the Social Weather Stations on June 27-30, a month after he was elected to the chamber’s top post.
This is the first time for Mr. Sotto to be included in this poll as the Senate leader. The Second Quarter 2018 Social Weather Survey showed Mr. Sotto’s first rating to be a “very good” +54, ahead of Vice-President Maria Leonor G. Robredo’s “good” +32, Acting Chief Justice Antonio T. Carpio’s “moderate” +11, and the “neutral” +8 of Representative Pantaleon D. Alvarez of Davao del Norte (1st District), his last rating as Speaker of the House of Representatives.
A power struggle last Monday, July 23, led to Mr. Alvarez’s replacement by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the former president and congresswoman from the 2nd district of Pampanga.
Mr. Sotto registered “very good” ratings across all social classes and age groups, among women, among respondents with educational attainments of “some high school” and “some vocational/college,” and in urban areas and in the National Capital Region (NCR), Balance Luzon, and the Visayas.
The Senate leader, who was a leading comedian, songwriter and film composer before embarking on a political career in the 1990s, had the highest score of “very good” +65 among the ABC class, followed by his “very good” +63 in NCR, and “very good” +60 among women and among respondents in the 45-54 age bracket.
(SWS terminology for net satisfaction ratings is 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 satisfaction stayed “good” at +32, dipping two points from her rating last March. She registered “very good” ratings in Class E, two points behind Mr. Sotto’s +57, and in the Visayas at +50, in contrast to her “moderate” +14 in NCR.
Mr. Carpio registered a “moderate” +11. He stayed “moderate” among men and women and across all areas except the Visayas where he was a “neutral” +7, but achieved a “good” +31 rating among the Class ABC respondents.
Mr. Alvarez, in his last rating as House speaker, rose 7 points from March to his neutral +8. He stepped up one grade to “moderate” +24 in Mindanao, leaping by 26 points from “neutral” -2 last March, and to “moderate” +28 among ABC respondents, also leaping by 29 points from “neutral” -1 last March.
The noncommissioned 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, with sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages and ±6% each for the said areas.
In a message to reporters, Mr. Sotto said, “It’s encouraging. Perhaps it’s a reflection of the ‘very good’ performance of the Senate as a whole.” — Ricky S. Torre

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