INFLATION and wages remain the main concerns of Filipinos although a majority approve of the way the Duterte administration is handling what they perceive to be the most urgent problems, results of a recent Pulse Asia survey showed.

On the other hand, the polling firm’s September 2017 Ulat ng Bayan survey showed bad roads, flooding and drugs were the main concerns at the barangay level.

Pulsa Asia said the self-initiated survey, conducted from September 24-30, involved a sampling of 1,200 adults with a ± 3% error margin at the 95 percent confidence level and a ± 6% error margin, also at the 95 percent confidence level for subnational estimates.

The results showed a clean half, or 50 percent, of respondents said the administration should control price increases while 42 percent identified the need to increase workers’ pay as their priority concern, with 36 percent naming criminality.

Other major concerns were job creation (32 percent), corruption in government (28 percent), reducing poverty (28 percent), promoting peace (21 percent) and enforcement of the rule of law (16 percent).

Of least concern were environmental degradation (14 percent), reducing taxes (9 percent), controlling population growth (8 percent), protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (6 percent), dealing with terrorism (5 percent), defending territorial integrity (4 percent), and amending the 1987 Philippine Constitution (2 percent).

APPRECIATION FOR GOVERNMENT
The survey showed most Filipinos continued to appreciate how the administration has responded to the following urgent problems:

• the needs of those affected by calamities (78%)
• fighting criminality (78%)
• protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (76%)
• fighting corruption (70%)
• protecting the environment (68%)
• enforcing the rule of law (67%)
• promoting peace (67%)
• defending national territorial integrity (65%)
• creating more jobs (63%)
• increasing workers’ pay (58%)

But the administration fell short of majority approval the most pressing concerns of poverty reduction (49%) and controlling inflation (45%).

Pulse Asia also said that, from June to September, “the only significant change in the national administration’s performance ratings is the decline in the level of appreciation for its efforts to enforce the law equally on all citizens (-7 percentage points).”

As for barangay level concerns, 15.9 percent of respondents identified bad or insufficient roads, 11.2 percent said flooding and clogged drainage, and 10.2 percent pointed to drug us, addiction or peddling as the most urgent problems needing the administration’s attention.

GOV’T IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION
Sought for comment, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella believed that the Duterte administration “is in the right direction” as it focuses on fighting criminality and corruption, which people cite as their most urgent concern.

“The survey results indeed underscore the President’s promise of genuine change to have safe neighborhoods and peaceful communities under a trustworthy government has been felt by people on the ground,” he said.

“We are hopeful that this translates into increased investments and better economic prospects that address urgent national concerns, such as reducing poverty, controlling inflation, creating jobs, and improving the pay of workers to achieve our common aspiration of comfortable life for all, he added. — InterAksyon.com and Rosemarie A. Zamora

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