PH ranks second in Taiwan's most hated countries list
A new report released this week found that the Philippines is among Taiwan’s most hated countries, ranking second after North Korea.
The results of the survey, conducted among 1,073 Taiwanese respondents by the non-government, non-profit Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation, were as follows.
Most hated:
- North Korea (70.9 percent)
- Philippines (52.9 percent)
- China (43.9 percent)
- South Korea (33.8 percent)
- Russia (29.7 percent)
Formal relations between Taiwan and the Philippines, its closest geographical neighbor, have been tenuous in the past, but warmed in recent years with the signing of Taiwan’s New Southbound Policy in 2016.
The document formalized Taiwan’s commitment to strengthening socioeconomic ties with the Philippines, and was well received by the Duterte administration.
Michael Alfred Ignacio, director for commercial affairs at the Manila Economic and Cultural Office (the Philippines’ de facto embassy in Taipei), expressed last week hopes to further realize those ties.
“We want to become Taiwan’s gateway to Southeast Asia and New Southbound countries,” Ignacio said. “[We’ve] been working very closely with Taiwan’s government to make it a reality.”
The Taiwanese Ministry of Labor lists over 150,000 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) currently employed across Taiwan’s households, construction sites, and manufacturing plants, amounting to the third largest group of immigrant workers in the country.
Taiwan was also the second largest source of foreign investments in 2017, accounting for 10.3 percent (P10.8 billion) of total applications.
These strengthening ties, however, have been slow to curb negative sentiments from the Taiwanese public.
But while the Philippines ranked second on the most hated list in 2017 as well, this year’s 52.9 percent showing was an improvement from the previous year’s 57.3 percent, marking a small, but positive shift under the Duterte administration.
Similarly, while North Korea also topped the list in 2017, the number of respondents noting an unfavorable opinion of North Korea has dropped considerably.
From 81.6 percent in 2017, that number has gone down roughly 11 percentage points to 70.9 percent. Experts attribute this positive change to the recent US-North Korea summit held in Singapore earlier this month.
Among those viewed most favorably by Taiwanese respondents were Singapore, Japan, Canada, the European Union, and the United States. — Santiago J. Arnaiz
Note: Estimates from the Philippine Statistics Authority released in May 2018 place the number of OFWs in Taiwan at roughly 88,000 (based on data collected between April and September 2017).
