Most of the Filipinos polled in a survey will celebrate Christmas just as they did last year while 91 percent will welcome the New Year with hope despite the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Pulse Asia.
The survey, released on Wednesday, said of the 2,400 adults surveyed from Nov. 23 to Dec. 2, some 55 percent said this year’s Christmas would be the same for them as the previous year, while 38 percent said this year’s holiday season would be less prosperous and 8 percent said they were expecting a more prosperous celebration.
The prevailing sentiment was highest among the residents of Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon at 60 percent each, followed by those in the Visayas at 55 percent and the residents of Mindanao at 41 percent.
More Filipinos this year, meanwhile, expect their holidays to be less prosperous with 38 percent saying they would be poorer versus 11 percent in 2019, the poll showed.
Some 91 percent of the respondents, meantime, were optimistic for 2021, while 8 percent were “ambivalent” and 1 percent said they would face the new year without hope, according to the survey.
The sentiment was most popular in Balance Luzon (93 percent) followed by the Visayas (92 percent), Metro Manila (91 percent) and Mindanao (87 percent).
The survey, with a sampling error margin of ±2 percent for national percentages, was conducted after a series of storms inundated Luzon and parts of the Visayas.
Meanwhile, Malacañang on Wednesday said it was not surprised by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey that shows six in 10 Filipinos believed that their quality of life got worse compared to last year.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said 2020 has been a “challenging year” for the nation with coronavirus lockdowns “adversely affecting the socio-economic condition of our people.”
“However, things are looking up. The economy has reopened which means more livelihood opportunities have become available,” he said in a statement.
Roque said the gradual reopening of the economy has been felt by the people since the figure of 62% in November was a “marked improvement” from September when 82% of Filipinos believed the quality of life worsened.
He also said the November survey by SWS indicated that hunger among Filipino families eased to 16% from a record-high of 30.7% in September and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.7% (around 3.8 million jobless Filipinos) in October.
“‘Ingat buhay para sa hanapbuhay’ will continue to be our direction in 2021 with the opening of more industries to revitalize our economy and stimulate growth for the betterment of the lives of our people next year and beyond,” Roque said.
