Extreme trust for gov’t almost tripled under Duterte admin—survey

President Rodrigo Duterte INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

Filipinos’ extreme trust with the government “almost” tripled under the Duterte administration despite a wave of “societal and institutional distrust” in the world, a nationwide survey showed on Tuesday.

The fifth Philippine Trust Index (PTI) revealed 80 percent of Filipinos in 2017 trust the government, a drastic increase of 30 percentage points from 50 percent in 2015.

Extreme trust rating in the government almost tripled—from 12 percent in 2015 to 29 percent in 2017, or a rise of 17 percentage points.

Communications agency EON led the research, and collected responses from 1,200 Filipinos aged 18 and above from March to April 2017. Among these pool was a sample of 600 “informed public,” or Filipinos who were at least 25 years old with at least three years of tertiary education and tune in to news updates at least twice a week.

The government was the top gainer among the six key institutions whose trust level was measured by the PTI. The trust rating with the academe, businesses, and nongovernment organizations (NGO) also rose, while trust in the media and the church stagnated.

Trust rating in the academe increased by 6 percentage points, or 87 percent in 2015 to 93 percent in 2017; businesses by 20 percentage points, or 55 to 75 percent; and NGOs by 18 percentage points or 41 to 59 percent.

While overall trust in the media gained 5 percentage points or 73 percent from 2015 to 78 percent in 2017, extreme trust went down by 4 percentage points, from 32 percent in 2015 to 28 percent in 2017.

The Church continued to be the most trusted institution by Filipinos. However, extreme trust was on the decline: from 73 to 66 percent, or down by 7 percentage points.

Executive most trusted

Among government sub-institutions, the executive department was the most trusted while the legislative branch was the least trusted in the government.

The Office of the President fared with 82 percent while local government units with 78 percent.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) enjoyed the highest trust level among all government agencies with 95 overall trust and 58 percent extreme trust rating.

It was closely followed by the Social Security System with 94 percent overall trust rating and 55 percent extreme trust rating. IDL

Filipinos’ extreme trust with the government almost tripled under the Duterte administration despite a wave of “societal and institutional distrust” in the world, the fifth Philippine Trust Index shows. Screenshot from the PTI