A new Social Weather Stations survey released this week showed that 44% of Filipino respondents were satisfied with Vice President Leni Robredo’s stint as co-chairperson of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD).

Based on 1,200 respondents, 14% percent said they were “very satisfied” with Robredo’s performance, while 30 percent said they were “somewhat satisfied.”

Twenty-six percent of respondents, on the other hand, were dissatisfied — with 15% somewhat dissatisfied, 11% very dissatisfied — and the remaining 30% were undecided, resulting in a net satisfaction rating of moderate +18.

On October 31, 2019, Robredo was appointeds ICAD co-chair to help PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino in curbing the illegal drug problem in the Philippines.

However, she was fired two weeks later by President Rodrigo Duterte due to alleged “missteps,” such as meeting with foreign personalities and groups that have prejudged the drug war and failing to present new measures to stop the drug proliferation in the country.

SWS also found that 49% agree that Robredo’s removal from the anti-drug body was an admission that the administration’s campaign against illegal drugs was a failure. Twenty one percent disagreed, and the remaining 30% were undecided.

Based on the responses, 44% believed President Rodrigo Duterte was sincere in appointing Robredo as ICAD co-chair, while 27% thought he was insincere and 29% were undecided.

In matters of Robredo having access to the list of high-value drug targets, 60% agreed that she should’ve had the right to see the list; 15% disagreed, while 25% were undecided.

The survey, which was conducted from December 13 to 16, 2019 using face-to-face interviews, had sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Robredo, for her part, welcomed the rating she received, expressing her gratitude to those who were satisfied with her performance.

“We all know how vilified I was when I was ICAD chair. But despite all the fake news, 44 percent still believed (in me),” she said.

She added, “There were a lot of things that I could have done… I would have had an influence on policy, establish partnerships with other government agencies. But for me, I never let difficulties get in the way of what I am doing.”

Malacañang, on the other hand, said the respondents who were satisfied believed the criticism against Duterte’s war on drugs.

“Perhaps four (in every 10 respondents) believed the incessant, unrelenting attacks against the drug war of the president. But as I pointed out earlier, this is contradicted by the people’s satisfaction of how he’s handling the drug problem,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Thursday, January 16. “You must remember his high trust and popularity ratings.”