Majority of Filipinos believe that their
personal quality of life worsened since last year while two in three
Filipinos are “pessimistic” or that it will even get worse off in the
year ahead as they refused to believe the government’s claim that the
country's economy has been gaining, the latest Pulse Asia survey showed.
The
survey issued Wednesday said 75 percent of Filipinos said their quality
of life are "worse off" now than last year while 84 percent believe
other Filipinos are also in the same worse situation.
It
added that 58 percent in Metro Manila to 84 percent in Mindanao
consider themselves to be losers and 72 percent to 94 percent said most
Filipinos have poor quality of life now compared to last year.
Pulse
Asia said the survey was conducted from July 1 to July 14. It asked
1,200 respondents from around the country amid the hot issues of the
increasing demand of cheap rice of the National Food Authority, Typhoon
Frank and the sinking of the M/V Princess of the Stars, power rate
review, and the subsidies being implemented by the Arroyo
administration.
The survey said only 7 percent of the
respondents said their situation have improved in the past 12 months
and 3 percent feel the national quality of life is better now than last
year.
"There are hardly any movements in the percentages of
Filipinos who consider themselves to be gainers – both at the national
level and across geographic areas as well as socio-economic classes –
between March and July 2008," the Pulse Asia said.
It said more
Filipinos now see themselves as losers than in March 2008 (75% versus
59%) while the percentage of Filipinos saying there has been no change
in their personal circumstances in the last 12 months dropped from 31%
to 17% during the same period.
Worse quality of life next year
Based
on the same survey, Pulse Asia said two in three Filipinos or 64
percent are pessimistic about their situation in the next 12 months and
79 percent said they are pessimistic about the national situation.
The
survey said 48 percent to 73 percent of the respondents expect their
situation to get worse next year. Sixty nine percent to 88 percent said
the national quality of life will get worse in 2009.
Meanwhile,
12 percent of Filipinos are looking at a brighter year in 2009, but
only 4 percent believe the situation of a majority of Filipinos will
remain worse next year.
Economy to get worse
The
Pulse Asia survey also showed that even with the government's claim of
a growing economy, 86 percent of Filipinos believe the country has
become poorer in the last three years "a view articulated by big (79
percent) to overwhelming majorities (93 percent)" around the country.
Only
4 percent of Filipinos believe the country's economy has improved and
10 percent believe the economy's state has not changed between 2005 and
2008.
The survey added that 81 percent of Filipinos attribute the deterioration of their quality of life to the dropping economy.
Pulse Asia said the same sentiment is shared by 73 percent of the respondents from Metro Manila to 88 percent from the Visayas.