90% of Filipinos welcome New Year with hope, 2 polls show

Even after facing many challenges this year, Filipinos are welcoming the New Year with hope.

Surveys by Pulse Asia and Social Weather Stations (SWS) found nine in every 10 Filipino adults saying they are hopeful about 2016, a sentiment expressed by the majority across geographic and socioeconomic classes.

In the Pulse Asia survey, conducted from Dec. 4 to 11, respondents were asked, “Will you face the coming year with…?” They were made to choose from “with hope,” “without hope” and “may be with/maybe without hope.”

Eighty-nine percent said they would greet the New Year with hope, only a point up from last year, while 11 percent expressed indecision and 1 percent said they would face 2016 without hope.

Pulse Asia used face-to-face interviews of 1,800 registered voters nationwide. The results had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2 percentage points.

A survey by SWS, conducted from Dec. 5 to 8, asked respondents, “Is it with hopes or with fears that you enter the coming year?”

SWS found 92 percent of the respondents saying they would welcome 2016 with hope while the remaining 8 percent said otherwise. This compares with the 93 percent who entered 2015 with hope and 6 percent who welcomed 2015 with fear.

SWS interviewed 1,200 adults nationwide. The results had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points for national percentages and plus-or-minus 6 percentage points for regional percentages.

Pulse Asia

The Pulse Asia survey showed that in Metro Manila, the percentage saying they are upbeat about the coming year rose by 9 points from 86 percent to 95 percent.

Those who are hopeful in Mindanao increased from 84 percent last year to 88 percent this year, while the percentage who held the same outlook slightly dropped in Luzon outside Metro Manila (from 91 percent to 89 percent) and in the Visayas (from 89 percent to 85 percent).

By socioeconomic classes, the percentage of those who are hopeful among class D stayed at 89 percent while it went up among classes ABC (from 90 percent to 92 percent) and among class E (from 84 percent to 86 percent).

Events that dominated the news in the weeks leading up to the survey and during the interviews included election-related developments such as the filing of certificate of candidacies (COC) for the May 2016 elections; Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s substitution of Martin Diño in the presidential race; the Senate Electoral Tribunal decision junking the petition for the ouster of presidential aspirant Sen. Grace Poe; rulings of the Commission on Elections First and Second Divisions canceling Poe’s COC for failing to meet citizenship and residency requirements for presidential candidates; and the end of the voter registration period.

Other issues reported included the dismissal from service of Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay for the alleged corruption in the construction of the Makati City Hall Building II, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum held in Manila, the “tanim-bala” scam in the country’s airports, Typhoon “Lando” (international name: Koppu) that lashed Central and Northern Luzon, and the decision of a Regional Trial Court in Olongapo City finding US Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Scott Pemberton guilty of homicide for the death of Filipino transgender woman Jennifer Laude.

SWS survey

Hope for the coming year has been at high levels since SWS began the survey 15 years ago. Between 2000 and 2014, it ranged from 81 percent to 95 percent. It has been above 90 percent since 2010 with the highest level of 95 percent recorded in 2011.

Compared with last year, hope for the New Year hardly changed in Visayas (from 91 percent to 90 percent) but declined by 3 points in Luzon outside Metro Manila (from 96 percent to 93 percent) and in Mindanao (from 91 percent to 88 percent). Hope was up by 3 points in Metro Manila, from 91 percent to 94 percent.

Among socioeconomic classes, hope went down by 2 points among classes ABC (95 percent to 93 percent) and by 3 points among class D (95 percent to 92 percent) while it barely moved among class E (from 87 percent to 88 percent).

The SWS survey also found that New Year hope was higher among those who expected a happy Christmas than among those who expected a sad Christmas.

Of the 72 percent who expected  a happy Christmas this year, 95 percent said they would face 2016 with hope while of the 7 percent who expected a sad Christmas, only 74 percent said that they would face the New Year with hope.

Between 2014 and 2015, hope in the coming year fell by 4 points among college graduates (from 95 percent to 91 percent), by a point among high school graduates (from 94 percent to 93 percent) and by 3 points among elementary graduates (from 94 percent to 91 percent). It was steady among nonelementary graduates at 89 percent.

The survey on hope and fear about the New Year was patterned after annual polls conducted by the Allensbach Institute, a pioneering opinion research center in Germany. Ana Roa, Inquirer Research