Majority of adult Filipinos believe that controlling inflation remains the most urgent issue among the 17 national concerns identified in the Pulse Asia’s March 2024 survey.

Based on the survey results, the need to control the spiraling prices of basic commodities was the only national concern considered urgent by 70 percent of Filipinos.

Pulse Asia noted that the same sentiment was mostly observed across geographic areas and socio-economic classes (67 to 77 percent and 69 to 73 percent, respectively).

“Public opinion on the matter hardly changed between December 2023 and March 2024,” Pulse Asia said in a report published on Friday, April 5.

It also found that slightly more than a third of Filipinos (36 percent) are concerned about raising workers’ wages.

Meanwhile, a quarter of respondents believe that fighting government corruption (26 percent), creating more jobs (25 percent), and reducing poverty (25 percent) are urgent national concerns.

Other national concerns included helping farmers (19 percent), addressing involuntary hunger (17 percent), helping small entrepreneurs to restore their businesses (14 percent), protecting the environment (11 percent), fighting criminality (11 percent), enforcing the rule of law (10 percent), reducing taxes (10 percent), defending national territorial integrity (9 percent), and promoting peace (8 percent).

The “least often mentioned” issues were protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (5 percent), preparing to face terrorist threats (4 percent), and changing the 1987 Philippine Constitution (1 percent).

The first quarter 2024 “Ulat ng Bayan” survey, which was conducted from March 6 to 10, has gathered responses from 1,200 respondents nationwide.