Pulse Asia: Only 1 in 10 believes Arroyo SONAs are true
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 03:48:00 07/25/2008
MANILA, Philippines—Public skepticism of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) has grown, with only one in every 10 adult Filipinos saying that her past speeches in Congress had been truthful, according to the latest survey of Pulse Asia Inc.
This “now makes it difficult” for the President to make full use of her SONA’s “political value” when she speaks to the people at the opening of the 14th Congress’ regular session on July 28, Pulse Asia said.
Only 13 percent of the 1,200 respondents, aged 18 years old and over, said Ms Arroyo’s previous addresses had been truthful, and about the same figure (14 percent) expected the forthcoming SONA to be truthful as well, Pulse Asia’s “Ulat ng Bayan” survey showed.
The survey was conducted from July 1 to July 14 using face-to-face interviews with a multistage probability sample of the respondents. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
11-point increase
The survey found an 11-point increase in the proportion of those saying that the July 28 SONA would not be truthful (from 29 percent in July 2007 to 40 percent in July 2008), alongside the drop in the proportion of those undecided about its truthfulness (from 55 percent to 46 percent).
“The low proportion of believers … has not grown in the past three years and cannot possibly represent much political capital for her and her administration,” the research outfit said in a statement released Thursday.
Considering the survey’s margin of error, there was virtually no change in the proportion of those who were expecting the forthcoming SONA to be truthful—from 16 percent last year to 14 percent this year.
“A marked, double-digit reduction in public vacillation between July 2007 and July 2008 (from 52 percent to 41 percent) did not do President Arroyo much good as many among the undecided public apparently resolved their doubts in favor of a more negative assessment of her past SONAs,” Pulse Asia said.
Mindanao most skeptical
Skepticism of past SONAs was highest in Mindanao (53 percent) followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila (47 percent); Metro Manila, 44 percent; and the Visayas, 39 percent.
Across socioeconomic classes, the view that past SONAs had been untruthful was “most apparent” among respondents belonging to Class D (46 percent) and Class E (49 percent). The same opinion was held by 41 percent among those in Classes ABC.
Regarding Ms Arroyo’s July 28 speech, the survey showed “markedly higher proportions” of undecided respondents in Luzon outside Metro Manila (52 percent), compared to the Visayas (47 percent), Metro Manila (45 percent) and Mindanao (35 percent).
Across classes, indecision was higher among Classes ABC (49 percent) than Class D (47 percent) and Class E (43 percent).
The proportion of respondents who said Ms Arroyo’s previous speeches were truthful declined by 3 percentage points (from 16 percent to 13 percent), while that of people who were undecided likewise decreased by 11 percentage points (from 52 percent to 41 percent), the survey said.
It said the proportion of those who believed past SONAs were not truthful increased by 14 percentage points (from 32 percent to 46 percent).
Still same sentiment
Moreover, the survey found that with three in every five (60 percent) of adult Filipinos aware of Ms Arroyo’s SONAs, over two in every five (46 percent) of them believed that the speeches had not been truthful, and about the same percentage (40 percent) expected the coming SONA would not be any different.
An “almost equally large number” (41 percent) of the respondents were undecided about the truthfulness of previous SONAs, and “a large plurality” (46 percent) were unable to anticipate the truthfulness of the coming speech.
The respondents were asked to complete the sentence: “In your opinion, President Arroyo’s previous SONAs were __.” They were to choose from “Truthful,” “Not Truthful” and “Undecided.”
Indecision among youth
Among the youngest respondents aged 18 to 24 (60 percent), indecision over the truthfulness of Ms Arroyo’s past SONAs was highest among those with some college education (55 percent) and the self-employed (53 percent).
“Over time (from July 2005 to July 2008), public awareness of SONAs delivered by President Arroyo has remained fairly constant (around 60 percent nationwide),” Pulse Asia noted.
Awareness of past SONAs was 83 percent in Metro Manila, 64 percent in the Visayas, and 54 percent each in Luzon outside Metro Manila and Mindanao. It was also higher among members of Classes ABC (87 percent) than among Class D (61 percent) and Class E (48 percent). Kate Pedroso, Inquirer Research
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