In the midst of Manny Pacquiao’s surprise defeat at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez, and overrated pop-star Justin Bieber’s persecution from aggravated Filipinos for making fun of The People’s Champ’s loss, which by the way actually warranted a suggestion from a certain lawmaker to have him banned from holding concerts in this wretched country, our beloved president together with his cohorts show up just in time to salvage the Filipino’s dampened Christmas spirits; PNoy still has high trust ratings!
Once again, Pulse Asia, a supposedly credible agency that feeds the Filipino’s fondness of surveys, stated that President Benigno Simeon “PNoy” Aquino III has managed to maintain its trust and approval ratings from the Filipino populace.
President Aquino has maintained his “big majority approval and trust ratings,” according to a Nov. 23-29 survey conducted by Pulse Asia.The November 2012 Ulat ng Bayan survey revealed that 78 percent of Filipinos expressed approval of Mr. Aquino’s performance, an opinion that has gone unchanged from the previous quarter.
(Source: Link)
Apparently fashioned as some sort of good news, Pulse Asia made the following evaluations:
Mr. Aquino also registered a trust rating of 80 percent, up by two percentage points from the 78 percent recorded in September.The survey also found that the Aquino administration posted majority approval ratings for its efforts in fighting crime, curbing corruption and enforcing the rule of law, among other things.
Furthermore, it’s been said that the Philippines’ poorest socioeconomic class, Class E, gave PNoy the highest trust and approval rating of 79-83%. Getting into the specifics:
Class D gave Mr. Aquino approval and trust ratings of 78 percent and 79 percent, respectively, and Class ABC gave him both 75 percent and 79 percent, respectively, the survey showed.Pulse Asia also asked respondents to express approval, disapproval or indecision on the President’s performance on 11 selected national concerns.The Aquino administration’s approval ratings were highest on issues of fighting criminality (67 percent), fighting graft and corruption (65 percent), law enforcement (64 percent), improving the national peace situation (63 percent), protecting the environment (60 percent), defending the country’s territorial integrity (57 percent) increasing the pay of workers (56 percent) and creating more jobs (55 percent).The administration’s approval ratings registered the lowest on issues of controlling population (47 percent), poverty reduction (44 percent) and controlling inflation (40 percent).
We may never truly know how entities like Pulse Asia conduct their surveys, how they round up samples and stuff like that, but this much I am quite certain of; news about these kind of surveys miserably fail the “so what?” test. But we all can’t have that, right? I mean, it’s good news! This is what PNoy would have wanted, given his apparent obsession for “balanced” journalism.
In an attempt to make such news relevant, we are periodically bombarded with them; every couple of months or so, we are told again and again that PNoy is still enjoying high ratings from his bosses, while PNoy is giving the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill the cold shoulder, while PNoy is taking credit for economic growth his predecessors are substantially responsible for, while experts themselves are saying that PNoy is actually part of our chronic problems, or while people are struggling to piece their lives back together after the disastrous typhoon Pablo. Like an anesthesia that numbs one’s feelings, attempts to obfuscate the sheer ugliness of our standing as a society, diversions for people looking under the proverbial rug wherein the dust have been swept, they manifest in the form of news like this. And somehow, people kind of like it.
We Filipinos are fond of feel-good news. Celebrities having Filipino blood, athletes like Manny Pacquiao bringing home the bacon, knowing our president, despite his colossal screw-ups, is still trustworthy according to our fellowmen, these are news that tend to make our day. These are news that somewhat sanitizes the sorry, sorry state of our nation; a screen, if you may, that tries to block the mozzies with a mean bite, reminding us how we are stuck deeply in the mud. This is our collective opium.
Perhaps this is why, like an addict going bananas when his vices are taken away from him so suddenly, or even when people talk to him about his addiction, Filipinos consistently go berserk whenever someone tries, knowingly or unknowingly, to tarnish the treasured gems of our collective ego. This is the way we are as a society; like a man on crack. As such, the so-called Pinoy Pride still stands tall. We as a society are becoming increasingly impervious from slaps by reality.
But for people who dare gaze on the other side of the curtain, they see how pitiful Pinoys can get when their good news are contested, when the things that give them incomparable joy, like an en masse acid trip, get taken away from people who happen to have slightly sharp tongues and sense of humor. They see how inconsequential news like these to our lives are. They see how these “news” fail to answer the ever-relevant question “so what?” They see how Pinoys are fixated and dependent on crack news.
Indeed, of what importance is news like these to our personal lives? Why do we put so much importance to them? Do we derive health and wealth from continuously bashing the likes of Bieber for mocking Pacquiao, the paragon of our national pride, the unwitting source of our social opium?
But of course, answering such questions would prove to be highly unproductive for our fellowmen’s emotional stability, right? Let’s leave them be. Live and let live. Let Filipinos recover from their soberness courtesy of unlikely sources like Bieber by basking once again into the glory of Pinoy Pride. Pacquiao is still the best! PNoy is still trustworthy! Everything will be okay! We’re the best there is! We have the best Christmas celebration in the world!
Even so, rehabilitation centers like this website will continue to exist for those who are quite sick of living in a mentally constructed dreamland in the middle of a sad society. We are willing to accompany those people willing to see our world for what it really is, to deal with the pain and frustration it might bring, and to contribute to Da Pinoy’s process of getting real.
Until then, let’s stay tuned and wait for a fresh batch of feel-good news. Marquez slipping on a banana peel? Justin Bieber mocked as a gay masquerading as a man? PNoy uncovering the meaning of life? Boy, we have got to have one of those!
Have some crack news this Christmas, everyone! Stay high.
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