Press Release
March 14, 2007

Surveys Only a Guide to Action Recto

Senator Ralph Recto says surveys and satisfaction ratings are only a guide to action and a barometer on just how well a government performs.

Recto made this assessment on Wednesday morning following the release of survey results by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) that showed President Arroyo registering a minus 4 satisfaction rating for the survey conducted from February 24 to 27.

The poll showed 39 percent of the 1,200 respondents were satisfied with her performance while 43 percent were dissatisfied.

On the one hand, the results were the best for the President since the October 2004 survey and this should prompt government to do a better performance as the electoral campaign heats up. However, surveys measure popularity not performance. Many of what this government had done was right but not popular, he noted.

Recto stressed that survey results indicate the drift in public perception and the latest survey came at a time when there was international concern for the hundreds of unsolved killings in the country.

The respondents also attribute their own personal miseries to the government. If they are having financial difficulties, the problem would naturally affect how they regard the national leadership, the Batangas lawmaker explained.

Recto said the survey conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) of Hong Kong that tagged the country as the most corrupt in all of Asia also indicates how less than 1,500 expatriates see the difficulties in dealing with a bureaucratic monolith that acts as a fetter to their business.

As I have said before, these surveys show our shortcomings and even our strengths. It is better for us to know the problem now and act on it than be sorry later, he added.

For his part, Recto stressed that these survey results should prod government to undertake some sort of self-criticism and plug the loopholes, as it were, to make the administration move as an efficient, honest and transparent structure answerable to the people.

Once reelected to the Senate, Recto vowed to craft reform measures to weed out grafters and corrupt elements in the bureaucracy, including the formation of an audit commission that would exercise visitorial powers on any agency of government to check on how they operate and how they abide by the code of professional conduct for public officers and employees.

The senator said the commission should be comprised of citizens of probity and integrity and public officers who have the moral suasion to make employees toe the line.

This commission would also reveal the results of its regular survey of government instrumentalities to the people through the media.

Recto urged all government officials not to be disheartened by the survey results, saying that the findings buttress the need to reform the government and replace incorrigible elements with honest ones who deserve to benefit much from taxpayers money.

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