Palace not surprised most Filipinos think life worsened the past year

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Thursday said it is not surprised by the result of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that majority of Filipinos think life worsened in the last 12 months.

For Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, the number should have been 100 percent rather than just 83 percent as shown by the SWS poll.

“Well, it should be a hundred percent because there is COVID and the economy was closed. Hindi po kami nasusurpresa dyan… It should, in fact, be 100 percent dahil minimum two months tayong complete lockdown. Lahat po talaga tayo nahihirapan at kinikilala po yan ng Presidente,” Roque said during an online briefing when sought for comment on the survey results.

(That’s not surprising… It should, in fact, be 100 percent because we’ve all been under a two-month complete  lockdown. Everyone is having a hard time and the President recognizes that.)

According to the survey, 83 percent of respondents thought that their quality of life took a downturn. The figure broke the previous record of 62 percent in June 2008.

Ten percent of the respondents believed their quality of life was the same, while six percent said it got better.

SWS said the six percent of “gainers” or those who think their life got better is a new “all-time low,” breaking the previous record of nine percent in July 1985.

While the coronavirus pandemic hit the country only at the start of the year, the SWS survey noted that quality of life had worsened in the last 12 months—the “worst trend in survey history.”

During the pandemic, lockdown measures were imposed in the country in mid-March, putting the economy almost at a standstill.

The nationwide tally of COVID-19 cases in the country is at 27,238  as of Wednesday, with1,108 deaths and 6,820 recoveries.

EDV