Most Filipinos still deem controlling inflation as a national issue that needs the Marcos administration’s immediate attention, based on the latest results of a Pulse Asia survey released on Thursday, Oct. 6.
In the Ulat ng Bayan survey conducted from Sept. 17 to 21 with 1,200 respondents, 66 percent of Filipinos identified controlling inflation as the most urgent national concern amid the continuing increase in the prices of basic goods.
“This is the prevailing view in all geographic areas and socio-economic classes (56 percent to 81 percent and 51 percent to 71 percent, respectively),” Pulse Asia said in its report.
Moreover, 44 percent of Filipino adults cited increasing workers’ pay as an urgent national concern.
Thirty-five percent are also concerned about job creation, while 34 percent are concerned about poverty reduction.
According to Pulse Asia, there were a few changes in public opinion regarding urgent national concerns during the period June 2022 to September 2022.
“The level of concern about controlling inflation—the only national issue considered urgent by most adults (66 percent)—increases (+9 percentage points) while concern about creating more jobs also becomes more pronounced (+6 percentage points). In contrast, public concern regarding peace promotion in the country eases during the same period (-6 percentage points),” it said.
About 22 percent also deemed as urgent the fight against graft and corruption in government.
“Criminality and involuntary hunger are issues that concern about a fifth of the adult population (19 percent and 17 percent, respectively) while enforcing the rule of law in the country is mentioned by a little over a tenth (12 percent),” Pulse Asia pointed out.
Less concern on 8 issues
However, only a few Filipino adults have expressed concern about the following issues: helping small entrepreneurs (9 percent), protecting the environment (9 percent), promoting peace (8 percent), reducing the amount of taxes paid by citizens (7 percent), controlling the spread of Covid-19 (5 percent), defending national territorial integrity (5 percent), protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (4 percent), and preparing to deal with terroristic threats (2 percent).
“Controlling inflation is the leading first-ranked urgent national concern (35 percent). The top second-ranked concerns are inflation (18 percent), workers pay (17 percent), and employment (14 percent),” Pulse Asia said.
“As regards third-ranked concerns, the most often mentioned ones are inflation (13 percent), jobs (13 percent), poverty (13 percent), workers’ pay (12 percent), corruption (8 percent), and involuntary hunger (8 percent),” it added.
In addition to inflation, Pulse Asia said the only other issue deemed urgent by majorities in any of the geographic and socio-economic sub-groupings is increasing the pay of workers, an urgent concern mentioned by 55 percent in Class ABC and 54 percent in Class E.
Meanwhile, the least often mentioned urgent national concerns across geographic areas and socio-economic classes are reducing the amount of taxes paid (7 percent to 8 percent and 4 percent to 8 percent, respectively), controlling the spread of Covid-19 (2 percent to 8 percent and 4 percent to 6 percent, respectively), defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners (1 percent to 7 percent and 2 percent to 5 percent, respectively), protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (1 percent to 6 percent and 4 percent to 6 percent, respectively), and preparing to face any kind of terrorism (virtually nil to 3 percent and 1 percent to 3 percent, respectively).