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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Most Filipinos favor military action to address West PH Sea issues

Most Filipinos favor military action to address West PH Sea issues

Published Jan 23, 2024 03:00 am

Seventy-two percent of Filipinos believe that the Marcos administration should prioritize military action—defined as expanded naval patrols and troop presence—to address issues in the West Philippine Sea, results of the 4th Quarter 2023 “Tugon ng Masa” (TNM) survey conducted by the OCTA Research showed.

The survey, conducted from Dec. 10 to 14, 2023, specifically asked 1,200 respondents what measures the Marcos administration should prioritize in order to effectively address the West Philippine Sea conflict.

“The percentage of adult Filipinos who prefer asserting the Philippines’ territorial rights through military action defined as expanded naval patrols and troop presence in the West Philippine Sea increased by seven percentage points since the third quarter 2023 TNM Survey conducted last October 2023,” OCTA said in its report released on Tuesday, Jan. 23.

“It must be noted that this is the first time ‘asserting the Philippines’ territorial rights through military action’ as a priority measure overtakes the top-ranked measure in previous TNM surveys, which is ‘asserting the Philippines’ territorial rights through diplomacy and other peaceful methods,’” it pointed out.

Aside from military action, the prioritized measures include asserting the Philippines' territorial rights through diplomacy and other peaceful means (70 percent) and modernizing and strengthening the Philippine military's ability to protect the country's territories (66 percent).

Conducting joint maritime patrols and exercises with ally countries (42 percent), expanding diplomatic efforts with countries within and outside the region (37 percent), and shelving disputes for joint economic development in the region (14 percent) were also mentioned.

Across socioeconomic classes, OCTA observed a significant increase in the percentage of adult Filipinos in Class D who prefer to assert the Philippines' territorial rights through military action, up 12 percentage points since October 2023.

However, Class ABC and E decreased by three and 12 percentage points, respectively.

Meanwhile, the percentage of adult Filipinos in Class E who prefer to assert the Philippines' territorial rights through diplomacy and other peaceful means has increased by 16 percentage points since October 2023.

In contrast, Class D decreased by five percentage points.

Likewise, OCTA said there is a notable increase in the percentage of adult Filipinos in Class D who prefer modernizing and strengthening the Philippine military’s capability to protect the country’s territories as a solution to West Philippine Sea disputes by eight percentage points.

In contrast, Classes ABC and E fell by five and nine percentage points, respectively.

Related Tags

tugon ng masa survey OCTA Research west philippine sea
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