MANILA, Philippines — A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released on Thursday showed that Filipinos’ net personal optimism of life improving in the next 12 months decreased to +38 under the Marcos Jr. administration.
The SWS’s data revealed that net personal optimism (the percentage of optimists subtracted by the percentage of pessimists) has decreased since its last survey in December 2022, which was at +44.
In October 2022, net personal optimism under the leadership of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was at 40+.
“The [six-point] decrease in the national net personal optimism score between December 2022 to March 2023 was due to decreases in all areas,” said the SWS in its report.
The SWS listed the following net personal optimism decreases from December 2022 to
March 2023:
- Metro Manila: +49 to +45
- Balance Luzon (areas outside of Metro Manila): +43 to +37
- Visayas: +37 to +27.
- Mindanao: +48 to +47
However, a rating of +38 for March 2023 is still counted by the SWS as “very high.”
Meanwhile, the SWS found that 42 percent believe that life will remain the same, while 6 percent believe it will get worse.
More pessimists among disadvantaged sectors
The survey also found that net personal optimism fell for those who only finished elementary school from +40 in December 2022 to +35 in March 2023.
Net personal optimism fell across all categories of those who experienced some level of hunger. The SWS listed the following decreases from December 2022 to March 2023.
- Hungry: +42 to +33
- Moderately hungry: +45 to +43
- Severely hungry: +29 to +12
The SWS also found that net personal satisfaction also fell among those from poor and borderline poor families.
“Compared to December 2022, net personal optimism hardly moved from +52 among those from not poor families. However, it fell from +49 among those from borderline poor families and from +37 among those from poor families,” said the SWS.
The SWS said the survey was conducted from March 26 to 29, 2023.
The survey involved 1,200 adults nationwide, 300 each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
“The sampling error margins are ±2.8% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao,” said the SWS.