A public official’s trustworthiness could not be measured by the results of just one survey alone, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Tuesday.
“Madaming ibang survey (There are different surveys). Let’s not base it on one,” Marcos told reporters before returning to Manila after his participation in the 46th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when asked to react to the latest Pulse Asia survey.
This, after results of Pulse Asia’s Pulso ng Bayan survey conducted from May 6 to 9 among 1,200 respondents showed that Marcos’ trust rating stood at 32 percent, a three-point increase from the 29 percent he obtained in April.
Despite the increase in trust rating, Vice President Sara Duterte earned a higher score compared to him, which was at 50 percent, Pulse Asia noted.
Duterte’s trust rating, however, was lower by seven percentage points from 57 percent in April.
Pulse Asia said Marcos has almost the same trust and distrust figures in Metro Manila (42 percent in May from 33 percent in April), the Visayas (38 percent from 42 percent), and Class E (40 percent from 46 percent).
Respondents from Class ABC gave Marcos the same distrust and indecision scores, according to poll results.
Across areas and classes, the “only notable change” in presidential trustworthiness ratings from April 2025 is the drop in distrust in the rest of Luzon, Pulse Asia stressed.
Marcos, however, downplayed the results of Pulse Asia’s latest survey.
“Well, again, let’s look at other surveys before we… Know your source. That’s a – that’s always an… Imperfect information makes you make imperfect decisions. The more perfect your information, the more perfect your decision will be,” he said.
“That is one source of information, and you have to understand where it’s actually coming from,” Marcos added.
Based on the findings of Pulse Asia’s survey, around 50 percent also disagree with the filing of the impeachment case against Duterte, while only 28 percent are supportive of it.
Marcos maintained that he does not want Duterte to get impeached, adding that the Vice President’s fate now lies in the hands of Congress.
“How many times do I have to say that? I didn’t want impeachment. Lahat ng kakampi ko sa Kongreso hindi nag-file ng impeachment complaint. ‘Yung mga nag-file ng impeachment complaint, hindi mo masasabing kaya kong utusan o pagsabihan na ito ‘yung gagawin mo (All my colleagues in Congress did not file an impeachment complaint. Those who have filed an impeachment complaint, you cannot say that I can order or tell you to do this),” he said.
Marcos also reiterated his openness to possible reconciliation with Duterte and her family but rejected the idea of setting any preconditions.
“That’s not how reconciliation works. You don’t put conditions to reconcile. When you want – if you’re sincere, you want to reconcile, let’s sit in front of… Ano ba talaga ang problema? Paano nangyari ito? Tanggalin natin ang problema (What is really the problem? How did it happen? Let’s fix the problem),” he said.