PHILIPPINE NEWS SERVICE — MALACANANG is on cloud nine amid the latest survey results of Pulse Asia wherein nearly seven out of 10 Filipinos do not believe the Philippines has become hopeless.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Lorelei Fajardo urged her countrymen to maintain a more positive outlook even as she stressed there is always hope.
Fajardo also called on local folks to rally behind the government and appreciate the government efforts in assuring them a better future amid the global financial meltdown.
In the Pulse Asia survey, a “considerable majority” of Filipinos (68 percent) disagreed with the view that the Philippines is a hopeless country.
“There is also a decline in the sense of hopelessness year-on-year. Disagreement with the view that the country is hopeless stood at 54% in October 2007,” it noted in the article.
It said even higher levels of disagreement are recorded in all areas of Mindanao (75 percent to 79 percent) and urban Visayas (77 percent).
Similar levels of disagreement were noted among government and private sector employees (75 percent) and those who farm/fish for a living (77 percent).
On the other hand, almost the same percentages of Filipinos either agree that the Philippines is hopeless or are ambivalent on the matter (13 percent versus 18 percent).
The highest level of agreement is posted in urban Luzon (20 percent) while ambivalence is most marked in rural Luzon (24 percent), Pulse Asia said.
Pulse Asia noted that quarter on quarter, the sense of hopelessness declines in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon (both by 13 percentage points), Mindanao (by 21 percentage points), and urban and rural areas (by 10 and 13 percentage points, respectively) ; and among Class D (by 16 pp), males (by 17 pp), those aged 45-54 years (by 14 pp), and those who did not reach college (by 11 to 16 pp) and those working (by 19 pp).
The survey also said one of every five Filipinos (20 percent) migrate to another country if they could do so, but 54 percent would not.
Nearly one of four (24 percent) cannot say if they would or would not migrate if given the opportunity.
“Those with at least some college education (32 percent to 35 percent), Visayans (32 percent to 40 percent), and those in Class ABC (34 percent) are most inclined to move to another country,” Pulse Asia said.
Conversely, disinclination to migrate is most manifest in the rest of Luzon (61 percent) and particularly in its rural areas (66 percent), the rural areas of the Philippines (61 percent), those with at best some high school education or vocational training (64 percent to 66 percent), farmers/fisherfolks (64 percent), those aged 55 years old and above (65 percent to 67 percent), and residents of rural Mindanao (68 percent).