Recent findings from the PAHAYAG Second Quarter (PQ2-2024) survey released on Friday revealed a notable shift in the political and economic sentiments among Filipinos.
It said a growing number of citizens are adopting a neutral stance towards both the administration of President Marcos and the opposition, indicating a trend of uncertainty and mixed feelings about the country’s future.
According to the survey conducted between June 15 to 10, 43 percent of Filipinos are currently undecided about their support for the President, while 52 percent expressed neutrality towards the opposition.
This neutrality suggested a potential erosion of clear-cut support for either political side, pointing to a broader sense of ambiguity in the nation’s political landscape.
Although there is a slight uptick in economic optimism from the previous quarter, with 58 percent of Filipinos expressing a positive outlook on the national economy and 68 percent feeling hopeful about their household financial prospects, these figures remain modest.
The data showed a significant drop in positive perceptions about the country’s overall state and direction, with only 38 percent and 54 percent, respectively, feeling optimistic. This is the lowest recorded level, indicating a cautious, if not pessimistic, view among the surveyed respondents.
The survey noted that 54 percent felt optimistic about the future in the second quarter of 2024, a sharp decline from the 71 percent recorded in the last quarter of 2022.
Negative sentiments have risen from 29 percent to 46 percent, suggesting a growing polarization in how Filipinos perceive the nation’s progress.
Despite these political and economic concerns, however, a strong sense of personal happiness persists among Filipinos.
An estimated 73 percent of respondents report being happy with their lives, with 53 percent describing themselves as “somewhat happy.”
Many are focused on achieving their best possible life, with 40 percent believing they are just a few steps away from it, and 20 percent feeling they are already close.
Filipinos’ resilience shines through, as their top priorities for happiness remain financial security (52%), living a healthy lifestyle (42%), affording basic necessities (28%), and residing in a peaceful and orderly community (27%).
The PAHAYAG 2024 Second Quarter (PQ2-2024) survey, conducted by PUBLiCUS Asia Inc., is an independent, non-commissioned study. It involved 1,507 respondents selected from a pool of over 200,000 registered Filipino voters.