64% of Filipinos Satisfied with District Representatives

Nearly two in three (64%) of Filipinos said they were satisfied with the performance of their district representatives, according to OCTA Research’s Tugon ng Masa nationwide survey in July. This is against 27% of respondents who said their representative was doing badly, and 9% who were undecided. OCTA noted it deviated from the usual survey that measures public opinion on the House of Representatives as an institution, which it said can “obscure a more localized dynamic.” “The finding that local representative satisfaction (64%) substantially exceeds institutional trust (38%) and institutional performance ratings (37%) suggests that accountability in Philippine politics may operate more effectively, or at least more visibly, at the constituency level than at the level of the institution itself,” it said, noting its implications on how legislators calculate political incentives. This may also explain the high reelection rate of incumbent lawmakers despite low institutional trust. Regionally, the highest satisfaction was recorded among respondents in the Visayas (68%), followed by Mindanao (65%), Balance Luzon (63%), and Metro Manila (60%). By socioeconomic class, 72% of those in Class E expressed satisfaction with their representative’s performance, compared with 62% in Class D and 63% in Classes ABC. “One plausible reading is that lower-income constituents, who may rely more directly on a representative’s constituency services and local patronage networks, form their assessment on more immediate and tangible grounds than higher income constituents, who may evaluate representation in more institutional or policy-oriented terms,” it said. The survey was conducted from July 4 to 11 through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 male and female probability respondents aged 18 and above. The non-commissioned survey has a margin of error of ±3 percentage points at a 95% confidence level. The margin of error for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao is ±6 percentage points. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba