Opposition senators boost approval ratings

Three opposition leaders – Senators Edgardo Angara, Panfilo Lacson and Tessie Aquino-Oreta – topped the list of senators with the biggest jump in their net approval ratings in the latest Pulse Asia Survey, compared to their December survey ratings.

The "Ulat" ng Bayan" survey conducted last month showed Lacson improving on his nine percent rating last December to 30, for the highest 21 percent positive change in performance rating.

In terms of approval of their performance, Senators Noli de Castro and Loren Legarda have the highest ratings of 74 and 71, respectively. Behind them are Sen. Juan Flavier, 70; Angara, 66; and Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., 60 percent.

Angara, who helped craft many of the administration’s most impressive pieces of legislation despite being in the opposition, earned a very high approval rating of 66, a leap of 13 points over his 53 rating last December.

The December survey also gave Angara the highest recognition rating of 99 percent.

Oreta’s approval rating last month went up to 15, dramatically reversing her - 2 rating last December by 17 points.

Oreta’s performance rating significantly improved among the D and E classes, or from -5 and 12 last December to 13 and 29 last month, for a jump of 18 and 17, respectively.

However, in terms of net approval rating, Oreta still has one of the lowest ratings among the senators with 15.

She posted high approval ratings of 14 in Luzon, 18 in the Visayas, and 17 in Mindanao.

Oreta has been pursuing a campaign to protect the interest of consumers against corporate giants.

Angara, Oreta and Lacson were among the only four senators who chalked up a double-digit improvement on their performance ratings. The fourth one is administration Sen. John Osmena who improved on his +32 rating last December by 11 points by garnering +43 in the April survey.

Osmena, chairman of the Senate committee on finance, was very prominent in the media that month as the Senate and, later, the bicameral conference committee, hammered out the final version of the 2002 national budget.

The rest of the senators ranked according to the change in their performance ratings in the April survey of Pulse Asia are as follows: Gregorio Honasan and Juan Flavier, 9; Luisa Ejercito and Aquilino Pimentel Jr., 7; Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda, 6.

Rodolfo Biazon, 5, Sergio Osmena III, Francis Pangilinan, Joker Arroyo and Robert Barbers, 4; Ramon Revilla, 5; Robert Jaworski, 2; and Noli de Castro, 1.

Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr.’s rating remained unchanged, while those of Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Renato Cayetano declined by one and three percentage points, respectively.