The public tumult over this year’s tax filings could damage President Park Geun-hye’s approval rating beyond repair, critics said Thursday, despite government efforts to placate the public.

The tax code revisions in 2013 mean that many taxpayers will not receive tax rebates or will pay extra in this year’s settlements, tentative counts to be finalized in March show. Government and governing Saenuri Party officials vowed to write a retroactive remedy tax bill by April.

But the efforts appear populist and near-sighted, experts said, and wouldn’t be enough to shore up Park’s falling public support, which is polling around 40 percent.

History appears to be against the struggling president.

According to tallies by Gallup Korea, all five of Park’s democratically elected predecessors since 1987, when South Korea freed itself from military rule, share a common trait: steadily declining approval ratings as they served out their unrenewable five-year terms.

Presidents such as Kim Young-sam (1993-98) and Kim Dae-jung (1998-2003) began their terms with ratings over 70 percent. But the two presidents finished their terms with only 6 and 24 percent approval ratings, respectively.

Ex-presidents Roh Tae-woo, Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myung-bak all followed the trend, although Lee’s ratings oscillated more than others due to mass street protests over free trade talks with the U.S. early in his term, Gallup Korea’s senior researcher Heo Jin-jae said.

Heo said the general declining trend for presidential public ratings is mainly due to scandals involving the president’s friends and relatives, and economic downturns such as the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

President Park was projected to do better because she didn’t have many confidants, Heo said.

But she appears to have been unable to defy the trend.

The first female president began her term with a shaky 42 percent rating, which rose to 60 percent in her first year. But it has been steadily sliding since, hitting 40 percent in the last quarter of 2014, the end of Park’s second year in office.

Critics cite the recent Chung Yoon-hoi scandal, a lack of policy achievements two years into her term, and the falling trust in her administration after the Sewol ferry disaster last April as the main causes of her declining popularity.

“It may be too early to discuss early lame duck status for Park, with three years left in her term,” Korea University political science professor Lee Nae-young said in a phone interview.

“But her uncommunicative style, and her general agenda appear insufficient and short-sighted. Do you think voters will be happy once the remedy tax code comes into effect in May?” Lee said of the hasty government response to the public discontent over this year’s tax filings.

Hanshin University professor Yoon Pyung-joong said Park’s lame-duck status in the near future was something that was “not impossible,” if current declines continued.

“Unless the Park administration comes up with drastic measures, such as a Cabinet-wide shake-up, the situation could get worse,” Yoon said. “Usually a support rating in the 30 percent range for a democratically elected president means imminent danger,” he added.

Park’s rating was 35 percent on Jan. 15 according to a weekly Gallup Korea survey of 1,000 adults nationwide. It rose slightly to 36.6 percent on Jan. 19 in a Realmeter survey of 5,500 adults, but the increase was within the surveys’ margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percent.

The main opposition party New Politics Alliance for Democracy added to the criticism.

“We are not free from the blame, either,” NPAD chair Rep. Moon Hee-sang said concerning the public furor over increased taxes.

“But the government must stop short-term measures and start raising corporate taxes,” NPAD chair Rep. Moon Hee-sang said, before demanding Park apologize over the tax furore.

By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)