The Philippines in 2013: Popular President Confronts Daunting Challenges

Summary

In early 2012, President Aquino was dubbed an absentee president by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who denounced his “nobody's at home” attitude when he convened his cabinet only four times in 2011. Later that year, two newspaper columnists characterized the president as a “do-nothing chief executive” who is “not working hard enough to solve the country's problems”. However, the Social Weather Stations (SWS)’ September 2012 survey signified that the majority of Filipinos saw their president in a different light. The SWS’ third quarter survey showed that 77 per cent of Filipinos were satisfied with the performance of Benigno Simeon Aquino III as president of the Philippines. The survey noted President Aquino's record-high net satisfaction rating of 77 per cent which indicated a 25 per cent increase from his rating of 47 per cent in May 2012. Thus far, it is the highest recorded net satisfaction rating obtained by any of the post-1986 Philippine presidents. The following year, the SWS and Pulse Asia surveys showed that President Aquino enjoyed a high performance rating of 72 per cent which showed that, almost three years into his term, public satisfaction for the president remained at unprecedented highs.

In early 2013, President Aquino's popularity was at its peak as the Philippine economy expanded and many analysts attributed this to his relentless anti-corruption campaign. The Aquino Administration's campaign against corruption in government, which led to the impeachment of the chief justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, generated political capital for the state and the economy. Thus, the Philippines emerged as a possible tiger economy in Asia as its economy grew by 7.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, and was expected to grow by an average of 6 per cent in the same year. However, in the latter part of 2013, the Aquino Administration was jolted by a series of unexpected challenging events.

Early in August, a rescue of a kidnap victim by a law-enforcement agency led to an investigation of several Filipino legislators who were allegedly involved in the US$200 million pork barrel scandal. Consequently, President Aquino was accused of targeting opposition legislators when the government filed plunder cases against them. In September, Muslim insurgents from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) stormed the southern city of Zamboanga.