Most adult Filipinos agreed with how President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his administration addressed territorial disputes between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), according to the survey released by OCTA Research on Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Based on the 4th Quarter "Tinig ng Masa" survey conducted last Dec. 10 to 14, the survey showed that the "majority" of adult Filipinos approved of how Marcos Jr.'s administration responded to the conflict in WPS.

"Around 61% of adult Filipinos agree with the Marcos Jr. administration's response to address the territorial disputes between the Philippines and China in the West Philippine Sea in the fourth quarter of 2023," OCTA said.

OCTA said it interviewed 1,200 male and female probability respondents aged 18 years and above to conduct the study.

OCTA specified that in major areas, agreement ratings ranged from 52 percent to 67 percent, from which the highest agreement rating was in the National Capital Region (67 percent), while the lowest agreement rating was in Mindanao (52 percent).

In terms of socio-economic classes, OCTA said Marcos Jr.'s administration got an agreement rating that ranged from 51 to 64 percent.

OCTA said the highest agreement rating on how the current administration dealt with China came from Filipinos under Class D with a 64 percent agreement rate, while the lowest agreement rate was from Filipinos in Class E at 51 percent.

Moreover, in terms of age groups, agreement ratings ranged from 51 percent to 70 percent in which the highest agreement rating was from Filipinos who were 75 years old and above (70 percent), while the lowest agreement rating was from Filipinos who were 45 to 54 years old (51 percent).

Meanwhile, in terms of age, Filipinos aged 45 to 54 had the highest disagreement rating of 15 percent.

In addition, Filipinos aged 18 to 24 had the highest percentage of uncertain answers at 38 percent with the administration’s policies and programs in the WPS.

Difference in rating with 2023 results

OCTA said the agreement rating increased in classes ABC and D since last October 2023 by four percentage points, while it decreased by three percentage points in class E.

Meanwhile, the disagreement rating decreased in all socio-economic classes since last October 2023, in which Class ABC had the highest decrease of 12 percentage points, said OCTA.

OCTA noted a ±3% margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level in the survey.