Filipinos more concerned about inflation and jobs as Marcos Jnr focuses more on South China Sea, survey finds

Philippine-based independent polling firm WR Numero told This Week in Asia its findings also showed the Philippine public was “not a foreign-policy-type of population” and that its demands of the president were no different than other elected public officials.

The report published on April 3 found that seven in 10, or nearly 70 per cent of 1,500 respondents said the Philippine Congress should focus immediately on rising commodity prices. About 52.7 per cent of those polled said lawmakers should prioritise hunger and poverty while 50.3 per cent cited the lack of jobs and opportunities as their key concerns, according to the survey.

Only 14 per cent of respondents said Congress should focus on China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea.

Other issues such as rising criminality and more illegal drug users – both of which were prevalent during the previous administration under strongman Rodrigo Duterte – were at 22 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively.

The survey was conducted between November and December last year.

While Marcos Jnr remains popular among the Filipino majority, recent surveys have shown his clout may be in decline – his trust and approval ratings saw a double-digit drop earlier this year from 68 per cent in December to 55 per cent in March, according to a poll by Pulse Asia.

Cleve Arguelles, a political scientist and head of WR Numero, told This Week in Asia that while the state of the economy was a constant concern for Filipinos, the firm’s survey was reflective of public expectations of Marcos Jnr and his administration, whose electoral platform in 2022 focused on economic recovery.

For instance, Marcos Jnr had repeatedly vowed to lower the price of rice to 20 Philippine pesos (US$0.35) a kilogram. In August,