SWS: Majority of Filipinos say life worsened in past 12 months

LIFE for majority of Filipinos took a turn for the worse in the past year, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted during the lockdown implemented by the government to slow down the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

The mobile phone survey, conducted from July 3 to 6 among 1,555 Filipino adults nationwide, showed 79 percent of the respondents claimed that their lives worsened in the last 12 months.

Aside from this, the survey also revealed that only 8 percent said that life became better (gainers), while 12 percent said life stayed the same (unchanged) during the past year.

This translates to a net-gainers’ score of negative 72 (-72), according to the polling firm.

The figure is the second highest recorded by SWS on the same survey topic, next only to the record-high 83 percent in May 2020.

SWS said the numbers recorded during its surveys in May and July, when several areas were still under lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, were so staggering and unprecedented that it forced them to add new categories in terms of bad net gainers score.

In fact, the research firm has never recorded such low numbers in its 37 years of existence that it was forced to split the bottom score category into two parts — extremely low and catastrophically low.

“The Net Gainers scores in May and July 2020 are unprecedented low figures. They are well beyond any previous fluctuation in the 37-year series. These extraordinary times led SWS to develop two more categories in classifying Net Gainers scores: extremely low (–49 to –40) and catastrophic (–50 below),” SWS said.

“Up to December 2019, very low was as the bottom-most category which refers to score –30 and under. In May 2020, extremely low was added to refer to scores –40 and under. In the latest classification, all other categories are retained except for extremely low which was split into the two new categories mentioned above,” it added.

While the net gainers score from all locales and as a whole improved, from -78 in May to the -72 in July, it remained at the catastrophic levels, according to SWS.

Visayas registered the lowest net gainers score at -75, followed by Balance Luzon at –74, Metro Manila at –71, and Mindanao at –65; while the May survey’s net gainers score for the Visayas was at -82, followed by Mindanao (-80), Metro Manila (-77), and Luzon (-75).

Meanwhile, SWS also found that the net-gainers score of people who received cash aid from the government was lower than those who did not, from -74 to -64, which might indicate that the government’s subsidy program was not enough to make people’s lives a little easier in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Net Gainers score is lower among those who received money-help from the government (–74) than among those who did not (–66). This means that more among the Losers received government-money help than among the Gainers,” SWS said.

Based on July 2020 survey, SWS found that 72 percent said their families received money-help from government since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.

The national government is giving out the second tranche of the social amelioration program for families in the vulnerable sector directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As of August 12, the Department of Social Welfare and Development distributed 78 percent of allotted funds for the second tranche, or P43.4 billion worth of emergency subsidy to qualified families.

The SWS survey, conducted using mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interview, had sampling error margins of ±2 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila, ±5 percent for Balance Luzon, ±5 percent for the Visayas, and ±5 percent for Mindanao.

Malacañang said it understands the Filipinos’ belief that their life would worsen in the next 12 months, considering the problems the country is still facing due to the pandemic.

But Palace spokesman Harry Roque Jr assured the public that the government was exhausting all efforts to ensure the country’s recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.

“Kinakailangan lahat tayo ay bumangon at hindi po madali itong proseso ng pagbangon. Naiintindihan po namin iyan (We need to recover but the recovery process is not easy. So we understand their sentiments),” he said.

To curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country, the National Capital Region (NCR) and other regions were placed by the government under enhanced community quarantine in mid-March.

In the NCR and other areas, quarantine restrictions were eased to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status in mid-May and then to a more relaxed general community quarantine (GCQ) in June and July.

The quarantine classification in Metro Manila and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal was, however, upgraded anew to MECQ from GCQ until August 18 following the health workers’ appeal for a “timeout” to prevent the collapse of the country’s healthcare system amid the pandemic.

In a televised public address aired on Monday night, President Rodrigo Duterte said he wanted to heed the request of medical front-liners to extend MECQ in Metro Manila and nearby provinces until end of August to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Duterte, however, admitted that the depleting funds of the government was a hindrance to the possible retention of MECQ status.

The President is expected to announce new quarantine classifications in the country on August 17.

The Philippines so far 147,526 confirmed Covid-19 cases with 2,426 deaths and 70,387 recoveries.

Source: TheManila Times