13 Dec 2023 – Government gets lowest points in fighting inflation – survey

Janvic Mateo – The Philippine Star
December 12, 2023 | 12:00am

Results of the Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 survey released yesterday found that only 14 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the government’s performance in managing inflation.
Philstar.com / Jovannie Lambayan
MANILA, Philippines — Even with inflation reportedly easing in recent months, six in every 10 Filipinos remain dissatisfied with the government’s efforts to control the rising cost of basic commodities, a recent survey conducted by the OCTA Research group showed.

Results of the Sept. 30 to Oct. 4 survey released yesterday found that only 14 percent of the respondents were satisfied with the government’s performance in managing inflation.

A majority or 64 percent were dissatisfied, while the remaining 22 percent were undecided.

Compared to a similar survey in July, satisfaction with government’s efforts to control inflation dropped 20 points from 34 percent, while dissatisfaction doubled from 32 percent.

The Philippine Statistics Authority recently reported that headline inflation slowed down from 4.9 percent in October to 4.1 percent in November. At the time of the survey period, inflation increased from 4.7 percent in July to 5.3 percent in August and 6.1 percent in September.

Meanwhile, satisfaction with the government in terms of reducing poverty dropped from 36 percent to 29 percent, while dissatisfaction increased from 26 percent to 31 percent. The remaining 40 percent were undecided.

The Marcos administration also obtained a satisfaction rate of less than the majority in six other issues: reducing hunger (34 percent satisfied, 28 percent dissatisfied), fighting graft and corruption (43 percent satisfied, 21 percent dissatisfied), reducing the amount of taxes (45 percent satisfied, 12 percent dissatisfied), controlling population growth (46 percent satisfied, 15 percent dissatisfied), preventing the spread of illegal drugs (47 percent satisfied, 22 percent dissatisfied) and ensuring food security (48 percent satisfied, 20 percent dissatisfied).

Out of the 24 issues included in the survey, the government obtained its highest satisfaction rating in terms of providing quality and secondary education (72 percent satisfied, seven percent dissatisfied), closely followed by quality tertiary and technical education (71 percent satisfied, six percent dissatisfied) and building public infrastructure (71 percent satisfied, four percent dissatisfied).These were followed by protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (69 percent satisfied, six percent dissatisfied), providing quality and affordable health care (69 percent satisfied, seven percent dissatisfied) and responding to natural disasters (68 percent satisfied, eight percent dissatisfied).

Other issues included defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners (64 percent satisfied, eight percent dissatisfied), peace and order (63 percent satisfied, seven percent dissatisfied), preparing for terrorist threats (62 percent satisfied, seven percent dissatisfied) and improving foreign relations (60 percent satisfied, six percent dissatisfied).

The government also obtained majority satisfaction ratings in terms of stopping the destruction of the environment (59 percent satisfied, nine percent dissatisfied), protecting human rights (58 percent satisfied, seven percent dissatisfied) and equal enforcement of the law (56 percent satisfied, eight percent dissatisfied).

Completing the list were creating more jobs (54 percent satisfied, 11 percent dissatisfied), fighting criminality (52 percent satisfied, 15 percent dissatisfied) and helping the poor (50 percent satisfied, 14 percent dissatisfied).

Based on the survey, satisfaction with the top five issues remained almost the same from the July survey.

Meanwhile, aside from controlling inflation and reducing poverty, dissatisfaction also rose significantly on the government’s programs to reduce hunger (from 16 percent to 28 percent) and prevent the spread of illegal drugs (from 16 percent to 22 percent).

The survey had 1,200 adult respondents and a margin of error of +/- three percent for national percentages.