Nearly seven out of 10 Filipinos believe that the country is headed in the right direction and that their financial prospects will improve in the next quarter, a survey conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia showed.
The second quarter Pahayag 2023 Survey revealed that 51 percent of respondents said that the Philippines remained strong, 30 percent said that it was neither strong nor weak, and 19 percent said it was weak.
Also, 68 percent of the respondents said the country was heading in the right direction, while 69 percent said national economic prospects would improve in the next quarter. Seventy percent of those polled expressed belief that their household finances would also improve.
The respondents believe that the economy is the most pressing issue for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to address, slightly above corruption, inflation, poverty and jobs.
Government workers showed the most improvement in their view of the country's current state, direction, and its economic and financial prospects, while other segments remained stable.
Overall sentiment remained positive, but some segments expressed a significant shift to the negative, such as those living in North Central Luzon, those ages 18-24-year old, those who identified as non-Catholic and other workers, and those with either no formal education or finished elementary or high school, and those who finished a vocational course.
Government workers and 25- to 29-year-olds were the most optimistic.
Among the 31 national issues asked by PUBLiCUS, the most favorable were the need to use renewable energy, which surpassed the perennial concerns of affordability of basic commodities, wages, livelihood, sourcing more funds from the wealthy, and feeding the poorest of the poor.
The spike in the number of those who believe that renewable energy is the most approved national issue was driven mostly by the 30- to 50-year-old age group, households with middle income, and those with higher education.
The second most approved issues were managing the shortage of health care professionals through the imposition of mandatory service and expediting nursing students to become work ready.
Other issues deemed important were the clamor to cancel the oil excise tax, modernizing naval assets, updating constitutional provisions and addressing the shortage in drivers' license cards.
The respondents also approved building nuclear power plants, adjusting the school curriculum for K to 12 students, reinstating the mandatory reserve officers training corps in college, passing the gender equality bill, implementing the contribution of the military and uniformed personnel in their retirement pension, and granting of additional sites for the Enhanced Cooperation and Defense Agreement.
The survey of 1,500 Filipino voters from across the country was conducted online from June 8 to 12, 2023, with a margin of error of 3 percent nationwide, 7 percent in the National Capital Region, 5 percent in both North Central and South Luzon, and 6 percent in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The respondents were drawn from the market research panel of 200,000 Filipinos maintained by PureSpectrum, a US-based panel marketplace with a multinational presence.
Source: Manila Times and Publicusasia
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