86% of Filipinos approve of their district reps – survey

By Francis Allan L. Angelo

MANILA — Nearly 9 in 10 Filipinos rate their House district representative’s performance favorably even as dissatisfaction with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. persists, according to the inaugural issue of The National Momentum Survey released Tuesday, July 28.

The non-commissioned survey by public opinion research firm Momentum Research found that 68.6 percent of Filipinos rated their district representative’s performance as a lawmaker “good,” while 17.1 percent rated it “very good.”

Only 9.4 percent of respondents rated their lawmaker’s conduct in office negatively, split between “poor” (8.1 percent) and “very poor” (1.3 percent).

Roughly 2 percent of Filipinos said they were unfamiliar with their district representative, another 2 percent were unsure how to rate their lawmaker’s performance, and 1 percent declined to answer.

Momentum Research Founder and CEO Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist, said public approval of national officials does not necessarily carry over to how Filipinos view their local representatives.

“These recent findings point to one of the enduring features of Philippine politics: voters can be dissatisfied with national officials and be highly satisfied with local representatives as long as congressmen are still seen as directly approachable for various assistance programs, local project support, and other constituency services. This proximity might explain this remarkably high level of public approval,” Arguelles said in a statement.

The pattern held across all regions, with a majority of respondents in every region rating their district representative favorably.

Respondents in the Rest of Luzon (87.3 percent) and the Visayas (87 percent) recorded the highest approval ratings, followed by Mindanao (83.3 percent) and Metro Manila (82.6 percent).

Mindanao stood out for giving the highest intensity of approval, with nearly 1 in 4 respondents in the region (23 percent) saying their district representatives have been performing “very well.”

Metro Manila posted the highest disapproval at 14.9 percent, followed by Mindanao (9.4 percent), the Visayas (9.1 percent), and the Rest of Luzon (7.9 percent).

Across political factions, Pro-Marcos respondents gave district representatives the most favorable ratings, with a combined 94.6 percent answering “good” and “very good.”

Disapproval was highest among Pro-Opposition respondents, or those who align themselves with former Vice President Leni Robredo, Sen. Risa Hontiveros, and Sen. Bam Aquino, 12.6 percent of whom rated their representative’s conduct as either “poor” or “very poor.”

Dy trails the chamber he leads

House Speaker Bojie Dy does not enjoy the same approval ratings as the district representatives overall, largely because a plurality of Filipinos (40.4 percent) say they do not know him.

Only a third of Filipinos (32 percent) rated his performance as House Speaker “good” (29.8 percent) or “very good” (2.2 percent), while a fifth of respondents (21 percent) found it “poor” (18.6 percent) or “very poor” (2.3 percent).

Dy’s approval was highest in the Rest of Luzon (36.2 percent), followed by the Visayas (31.1 percent), Metro Manila (30.9 percent), and Mindanao (24.9 percent).

Metro Manila gave Dy his highest disapproval rating, with around 1 in 3 Filipinos (32 percent) rating his performance “poor” (28.9 percent) or “very poor” (3.1 percent).

The Speaker was least known in Mindanao (44 percent) and the Rest of Luzon (43 percent), followed by the Visayas (38 percent) and Metro Manila (30 percent).

A legislator with close ties to the Marcos administration, Dy received his most favorable ratings from Pro-Marcos respondents, 42 percent of whom rated his performance either “good” (40.1 percent) or “very good” (1.9 percent).

Gatchalian in net positive territory

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, meanwhile, is seeing more Filipinos approve of his performance than disapprove.

Some 42.1 percent found his conduct as Senate President “good” (39.3 percent) or “very good” (2.8 percent), while 31 percent rated it “poor” (26.8 percent) or “very poor” (4.2 percent).

The remaining 15 percent said they do not know him, while 10.1 percent were unsure how to rate him.

Regionally, Gatchalian enjoyed the highest approval from Metro Manila (49.3 percent) and the Rest of Luzon (48.8 percent), while his disapproval was highest in Mindanao (43.7 percent), where 34.1 percent rated his performance “poor” and 9.6 percent “very poor.”

Like Dy, Gatchalian received his most favorable ratings from Pro-Marcos respondents (67.1 percent), followed by Pro-Opposition respondents (52.7 percent) and Independents (43.5 percent).

His highest disapproval ratings, combining “poor” and “very poor,” came from Pro-Duterte respondents at 45.6 percent.

Conducted from July 13 to 16, the non-commissioned survey used face-to-face interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,438 Filipino adults. It carries a ±2.6 percent national margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.

Subnational margins of error are ±7 percent for the National Capital Region, ±4 percent for the Rest of Luzon (North, South, and Central Luzon), ±6 percent for the Visayas, and ±5 percent for Mindanao, all at a 95 percent confidence level.

The National Momentum Survey is Momentum Research’s flagship initiative. Its inaugural July 2026 issue covers public opinion on government performance, Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment trial, and the 2028 National Elections.