Charles Teves
Malacañang wants the public to remain optimistic by saying that “things are looking up” after an opinion poll revealed that 3 in 5 Filipinos believe their quality of life this year worsened.
Small businesses are dying and millions are unemployed due to the pandemic that has also killed millions worldwide.
According to a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), 62 percent of Filipinos said that life has been worse in the last 12 months, a huge jump by 28 points from the “catastrophic” -76 last September.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque found the survey “not surprising.”
“Year 2020 has been a challenging year for the Philippines with lockdowns adversely affecting the socioeconomic condition of our people,” he said in a statement.
“However, things are looking up. The economy has reopened which means more livelihood opportunities have become available,” he added.
SWS’s latest survey meanwhile suggested that there are fewer Filipino families that are hungry today which is at 16 percent, a huge improvement from the record-high of 30.7 percent.
Unemployment improved to 8.7 percent from the all-time high of 17.7 percent last April.
“Ingat buhay para sa hanapbuhay will continue to be our direction in 2021 with the opening of more industries to revitalize our economy and stimulate growth for the betterment of the lives of our people next year and beyond,” Roque said.
Over 466,000 COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the country with 9,055 succumbing to the disease. The public is now awaiting mass vaccination as the economy slowly recovers.
