Malacañang is saddened by Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey results which showed that four out of five or 82 percent of adult Filipinos said their quality of life worsened in the past 12 months.
“Siyempre po nalulungkot tayo diyan pero ‘yan naman po ay dahil sa pandemiya (Of course, we are sad to hear that, but that’s because of the pandemic),” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.
However, Roque expressed hope that Filipinos’ quality of life would improve once a COVID-19 becomes available.
“Tingin ko naman po, bubuti naman ang buhay natin, palabas na po ang bakuna at natututo na rin tayo mabuhay bagamat nandiyan ang Covid-19 (I think our lives will improve, a vaccine will soon be available and we are living to live with Covid-19),” he added.
The Social Weather Stations (SWS) September 17-20, 2020 National Mobile Phone Survey found 82% of adult Filipinos saying their quality-of-life got worse (termed by SWS as “Losers”), versus 11% saying it was the same (“Unchanged”), and only 6% saying it got better (“Gainers”), compared to a year ago.
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The resulting Net Gainers score in September 2020 is -76 (% Gainers minus % Losers), considered by SWS as catastrophic (-50 and below).
The September 2020 score joins SWS’s worst survey history trends, having recorded -78 in May and -72 in July during the Covid-19 crisis. The only other time the score reached a catastrophic level was June 2008 (-50), during rice and oil price hikes.
The Net Gainers score stayed catastrophic in all areas: it is -80 in the Visayas, -76 in Metro Manila, -75 in Balance Luzon, and -74 in Mindanao.
Compared to July 2020 figures, all areas experienced a worsening in their Net Gainers scores: Mindanao experienced the biggest drop of 9 points; the Visayas, 5 points; Metro Manila, 4 points; and Balance Luzon, 1 point.
The September 2020 survey also found that Net Gainers is significantly worse among those who did not graduate from college.
Among college graduates, the score is -64. Meanwhile, among those with less education, the score ranges from -72 to -83. The score is worst among those who only finished up to some junior high school education.