Palace ‘not surprised’ most Pinoys think life worsened

By Prince Golez

Malacañang on Wednesday said it was not surprised by the results of a survey which showed that 62 percent of Filipinos believe their quality of life worsened this year.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque acknowledged that 2020 has been a “challenging” year for the country, citing the impact of Covid–19 lockdown on the socio-economic condition of Filipinos.

“It is therefore not surprising that the Fourth Quarter Survey of the Social Weather stations (SWS), conducted last November 21 to 25, 2020, showed 62 percent of Filipinos believe that their quality of life got worse in the last 12 months,” said Roque.

But, the Palace official expressed optimism that economy will get better as more businesses reopen in recent months.

“Things are looking up. The economy has reopened which means more livelihood opportunities have become available,” according to him.

“This has been felt by our people as it is noteworthy to mention that the latest figure, 62 percent in November 2020, is a marked improvement from the 82 percent of Filipinos who had the same belief last September 2020,” he also said.

Roque cited the the latest SWS survey indicating that hunger among Filipino families eased to 16 percent from a record-high of 30.7 percent.

The country’s unemployment rate also eased to 8.7 percent in October 2020 from a high of 17.7 percent last April 2020, data from the October 2020 Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority showed.

“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,” said Roque.

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