VERA FILES FACT CHECK: VP Sara Duterte’s OLD trust ratings passed off as recent

Several netizens are spreading this month a graphic that suggests Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio currently enjoys a high trust rating of 83%. The figure came from a poll earlier this year of public opinion research firm Octa Research. The rating has since gone down.

The misleading posts started surfacing on Facebook (FB) on Nov. 11, which a reader requested VERA Files to look into. One of the posts bore the caption:

“Our VP Inday Sara Duterte remains The Highest/Most Trusted Elected Govt Officials in the latest Octa Research Survey! Yes Yes Yo!”

The words “Trust Rating (Q2)” can be seen on the graphic, suggesting it came out in the second quarter of 2023, but comments on the posts show netizens believing that the figure was from a more recent survey.

The graphic was originally published by the official Facebook page of PDP Laban on Oct. 3. The trust rating figure came from Octa Research’s Tugon ng Masa survey conducted from July 22 to 26 this year.

According to the latest Tugon ng Masa survey done from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, Duterte-Carpio’s trust rating dropped by 8 percentage points, from 83% to 75%. Her satisfaction rating also slid from 82% to 70%.

The decrease in trust and performance ratings came after the debacle over Duterte-Carpio’s controversial use and request of confidential and intelligence funds. Though the vice president said she will withdraw her request for a P500-million confidential fund, she has asked senators to allocate it instead to a program of the Department of Education, which she also heads.

At least three Facebook pages – namely Pepz Tc 2.0 (created on April 27, 2021), Vice President Inday Sara Du30 (Oct. 12, 2019) and Ipagpatuloy Ang Pagbabago (created on April 23, 2018) – and one X account presented the graphic as new, garnering over 1,070 reactions, 170 comments and 35 shares.

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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)