The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed a record-high 83% of Filipinos who say their life quality got worse in the past 12 months, breaking the previous 62% recorded in June 2008.
SWS surveyed from May 4 to 10 on Filipinos aged 15 years old and above nationwide. Of the total number, 294 are in the National Capital Region, 1,645 are in Balance Luzon (or Luzon outside of Metro Manila), 792 are in the Visayas, and 1,279 in Mindanao.
“The special Social Weather Stations (SWS) Covid-19 Mobile Phone Survey, conducted from May 4-10, 2020 among working-age Filipinos, found 83% saying their quality of life got worse… versus 10% saying it was the same… and only 6% saying it got better… compared to a year ago,” said SWS.
This 83% is the largest percentage of Filipinos whose living conditions have worsened since the survey of “net gainers” in April 1983.
The poll body used the term “Gainers” for those who said their life improved, “Losers” for those who said the quality of their life got worse, and “Unchanged” for those who said it’s still the same.
“[This] is the worst in survey history, breaking the previous record low –50 in June 2008,” the group added. It fits into the “extremely low” classification of SWS.
“The negative May 2020 score, however, is a break from the positive trend of the past 5 years. Of the 20 observations between March 2015 and December 2019, 19 were positive. Notably, this already accounts for 90% of all positive scores recorded by SWS.”
In April, the Philippines also recorded a “record-high” unemployment rate in the Philippines of 17.7%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
From 2.3 million unemployed in April 2019, it rose to 7.3 million, a factor attributed to job losses due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Also read: COVID-19 doubles number of starving Filipino families-SWS
Palace not surprised with SWS survey that 83% of Pinoys claim life worsened
“It should be 100%, because there is COVID-19 and the economy was closed,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a televised briefing.
“Hindi na kami surprised diyan. It should be 100% kasi minimum two months na complete lockdown tayo. Lahat po tayo nahihirapan, at naiintindihan po ‘yan ng Presidente,” he added.
(We were not surprised by that. It should be 100% because we were in complete lockdown for a minimum of two months. All of us are suffering, and the President understands that.)