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KAS Philippines' partner, the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center, invited Dr. Mahar Mangahas to present the SWS Survey Review for 2015.

Dr. Mahar Mangahas is a Filipino Economist known for his research in different areas, especially on public opinion. The SWS research is based on data from 2014, with a quarterly average sample size of 1,200 persons. The results are then classified into different categories from Execrable to Excellent.

The survey is basically about the national satisfaction with the Philippine government. Dr. Mangahas explained that all in all, “the quality of national governance in 2014 was quite decent.” This means that Filipinos are satisfied with the work of the Aquino government, particularly compared to previous Administrations. This includes the different representatives such as the President or Vice-President who performed good, as well as key institutions, such as the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The SWS team also asked for people’s satisfaction with the Administration on specific issues. Surprisingly, the people are satisfied the most with “helping victims of disasters.” This research information is different from the media reports that critiqued the government’s performance after typhoon Yolanda in 2013. As the damage of Yolanda still have a high impact on people, public opinion on this issue was really important. Interestingly, Filipinos still have very strong hope that areas damaged by the typhoon can fully recover. They trust the Philippine government in handling natural disasters like this.

The research also focused on self-rated poverty. Although the score was declining in the last years, the Filipinos still give good grades for the Administration in terms of helping the poor, even though the poverty rate is nearly the same as in 2004 (around 25%---the self-rated poverty even reaches 52%). This is a poor performance of the Philippines, compared to other Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia that reduced the poverty rate from 50.2% in 2004 to 17.7% in 2014. It is the same with self-rated food poverty, there was no improvement in the last 10 years. Since 2004, the degree of hunger even rose to a peak of 19.9% and declined only a little last year (18.3%).

The satisfaction rate on corruption declined in 2014 as well. However, the Aquino Administration performed better in the fight against it as compared to the ones before. Another point of interest is the progress of the peace agreement in the Bangsamoro. People have strong hopes for peace in that region within the next Presidency.

SWS also published its 2016 election watch. At present, Jejomar Binay (the current Vice-President) has the highest score (37%) in the Presidential race, followed by Grace Poe (21%) and Manuel Roxas (19%). Mangahas also claimed that it is difficult to do a forecast at this early stage of the elections.

Since Pope Francis visited the Philippines recently, he also did some research on the popularity of the Pontiff. Without any surprise, Filipinos traditionally trust the pope, more so after a visit. Therefore, higher rates for the popularity of Pope Francis are expected next year.

As response speakers, the AIM Policy Center invited Mr. Filomeno Sta. Ana III, a co-founder and coordinator of Action for Economic Reforms and writer of columns for BusinessWorld and Rappler, and Hon. Corazon “Dinky” Juliano-Soliman, the Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare from 2001 to 2005 and since 2010.

Sta. Ana tried to interpret some of the data and called the election of President Aquino a “historical accident,” but in a positive way. The circumstances that made him Head of State were lucky and he should have done more in the early stages of his Presidency. Sta. Ana forecasted tough times with declining satisfaction rates in his last year. In contrast, Soliman stressed the efforts of the government (and her Department) in reducing poverty and called it a “complex challenge.”

Mr. Benedikt Seemann, KAS Philippine Country Representative did the closing remarks. He explained how important such surveys are, as they reveal new challenges that have yet to be solved. In his view, one important issue for the next years will be to educate the population, as this survey presented a lack of knowledge in Filipinos about issues they find relevant. Furthermore, he emphasized that poverty reduction should be the governance’s priority, as about 25 million people are poor in the country.