Gov’t scores low on issues of low wages, high prices

LOW WAGES and high prices are the top two issues for voters in next year’s general elections, but it is in dealing with these problems that the Aquino administration is scoring the lowest in net approval ratings, according to the latest Ulat ng Bayan survey by Pulse Asia Inc.

The survey, taken from Sept. 8 to Sept. 14, covered the Filipinos’ primary concerns and whether they approved or disapproved of the Aquino administration’s performance in trying to solve those problems.

Asked in face-to-face interviews to mention at most three concerns that needed immediate action by the Aquino administration, 47 percent of 2,400 respondents cited improving or increasing pay of workers, while 46 percent cited controlling inflation—a statistical tie, given the margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points.

Also cited by about a third of the respondents as among urgent national concerns were fighting graft and corruption in the government (39 percent), creating more jobs (37 percent), and reducing poverty (32 percent).

Disapproval is the “plurality assessment” of the administration’s performance in dealing with poverty and inflation, with only 24 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving of the government’s performance in controlling inflation, for a net approval rating of -22, the lowest among issues covered by the survey.

The administration scored -13 net approval (28 percent approve, 41 percent disapprove) for its efforts in reducing poverty, while it scored -4 (33 percent approve, 37 percent disapprove) for its performance in improving or increasing wages.

In job creation, the Aquino administration scored +6 net approval (37 percent approve, 31 percent disapprove), and in fighting graft and corruption in the government, it rated +3 (39 percent approve, 36 percent disapprove).

Top concerns

Other urgent concerns cited in the survey were fighting criminality (25 percent), increasing peace in the country (18 percent), enforcing the law for all (16 percent), stopping the destruction and abuse of the environment (13 percent), and controlling fast population growth (11 percent).

“Filipinos are least concerned about territorial integrity (7 percent), charter change (4 percent) and terrorism (3 percent),” Pulse Asia said as it released the results of the survey Monday.

Areas and classes

In Metro Manila, wages (50 percent) and corruption (42 percent) were the top urgent national concerns, while the top issues in Luzon outside Metro Manila were worker’s pay (48 percent), inflation (46 percent), corruption (39 percent) and jobs (38 percent).

In the Visayas, the most often cited national concerns were wages (49 percent), inflation (46 percent) and corruption (40 percent), while respondents in Mindanao cited inflation (50 percent) and workers’ pay (42 percent).

Across classes, the leading urgent concerns for Class ABC were corruption (44 percent), workers’ pay (39 percent), inflation (39 percent), criminality (34 percent) and jobs (33 percent).

Among Class D, the leading urgent concerns were wages (48 percent) and inflation (47 percent), while those among Class E were concerned most about workers’ pay (48 percent), inflation (47 percent) and poverty (37 percent).

“The least often mentioned urgent national concerns across geographic areas and socioeconomic classes are territorial integrity, charter change and terrorism,” Pulse Asia said.

Less than one in 10 in Class E (8 percent) also considered rapid population growth an urgent national concern, Pulse Asia added.

Other issues

The Aquino administration scored a majority approval score in protecting the welfare of overseas Filipinos (51 percent), the only majority score among issues included in the survey.

With 15 percent disapproving and 34 percent undecided on the government’s efforts for overseas workers, the administration’s net approval rating was +36.

The administration scored a net approval rating of +24 in increasing peace in the country (46 percent approve, 22 percent disapprove), while it scored +21 in defending territorial integrity (43 percent approve, 22 percent disapprove).

These issues were among the most urgent concerns for only 18 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

The administration scored a net approval rating of +20 (43 percent approve, 23 percent disapprove) in stopping the destruction and abuse of the environment; +18 in fighting criminality (44 percent approve, 26 percent disapprove), and +15 (39 percent approve, 24 percent disapprove) in enforcing the rule of law for all.

Between June and September, disapproval for the administration’s efforts at fighting graft and corruption in the government increased by 11 points from 25 percent to 36 percent, while disapproval for the administration’s performance in fighting criminality also increased by 6 points, from 20 percent to 26 percent in the same period. Inquirer Research