You could be forgiven for thinking that, based on the headline that appeared recently in a daily broadsheet, the country is indeed going to the dogs, that things are getting even worse than usual, that Philippine society is in a state of decay and therefore, ripe for revolution.
The headline? “More think Philippines headed in wrong direction – OCTA poll.”
The headline, however, highlighted only the negative aspect of the survey result.
The survey actually found the majority of Filipinos, or 62 percent believe the country is headed in the right direction.
This is a decrease of 10 percent from 72 percent in a similar survey conducted in July 2023.
Optimism was 76 percent in March 2023 and 85 percent in October 2022, the first survey conducted by OCTA on this issue under the second Marcos administration.
Only two in every 10 Filipinos believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, according to the third quarter survey by the OCTA Research Group.
Those who think that way increased from 11 percent in July to 20 percent in the latest survey. It was 10 percent in March 2023 and only six percent in October 2022.
The remaining 18 percent said they do not know if the country is headed in the right or wrong direction, almost similar to the 17 percent ambivalence in the July poll.
Compared to the July survey, the percentage of respondents who think the country is headed in the right direction decreased across all areas.
It was lowest among those in Luzon, followed by those in the Visayas, Metro Manila and Mindanao.
The number of those who think the country is headed in the wrong direction was highest among respondents in the Visayas, followed by those in Mindanao, balance Luzon and Metro Manila at 18 percent (from 13 percent).
How useful is a survey that asked respondents if they approved or disapproved of the country’s current direction without offering specifics, such as economic growth, good governance, peace and order, or foreign policy, among others?
If you ask respondents to take a stand based only on a subjective perception of how the country is doing at this particular point in time, you get simply yes or no answer, rather than a carefully considered or well-thought-out reply.
In other words, such a survey may be next to useless in terms of guiding policy makers in coming up with concrete programs and projects for various sectors that can help government attain political stability, economic advance and social cohesion.