President Ferdinand R. Marcos continues to enjoy public approval amid inflation concerns because many Filipino families are benefiting from the social programs of his administration, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said on Tuesday.

Recto made the remarks  when asked during a press briefing in Malacañang for his assessment on the government’s response to challenges posed by inflation.

“We do have a lot of social programs that we’re undertaking. More or less, 50 percent of all Filipino families will benefit from the budget this year,” he said.

“Iyong mga ayuda program, iyong 4Ps, AKAP, AICS. You put them altogether, that’s more than [PhP500 billion]. You’re talking about roughly 12 million families would benefit from that. So this is like a wealth transfer,” he added.

All of those programs aid ordinary Filipino families to cope up with inflation, Recto said. Recto noted they may have been pushing the approval rating of the President and the entire government.

“Now, you are correct that the inflation is the number one concern. If you take a look at the different programs of government, ang rate ng taumbayan doon ay maganda ang approval rating sa iba’t ibang programa ng ating Pangulo,” he pointed out. | PND