MANILA — Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Saturday welcomed the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey saying almost all Filipinos “have high hopes” for 2018.
“Indeed, there are reasons to be hopeful,” he said in a statement. “Our economy is on a roll with institutions like the Asian Development Bank upgrading our growth outlook for 2017 and debt watcher Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global Ratings also adjusting upward its economic growth forecast for the Philippines this year.”
Roque said the liberation of Marawi is expected to likewise spur economic activities in Mindanao.
“The implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act– together with higher investment in infrastructure– on the other hand, is expected to prop up our economy in 2018,” he said.
“The prospects for the future thus look bright,” he said. “We therefore ask our citizens to help the Administration in laying down the foundation of a prosperous and peaceful nation.”
According to the 4th Quarter 2017 Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey conducted from Dec. 8 to 16, “a new all-time high 96 percent of adult Filipinos are entering 2018 with hope rather than with fear.”
This surpassed the previous record of 95 percent achieved in 2002, 2011, and 2016.
Meanwhile, four percent will enter the New Year with fear, the lowest since the four percent in 2011. This is one point below the five percent in 2016.
According to SWS, hope for the New Year has always been high, starting at 87 percent when SWS first surveyed it in 2000.
It went to 88 percent in 2001, and reached 95 percent in 2002 before easing to 90 percent in 2003, 81 percent in 2004, and 85 percent in 2005.
It ranged from 91 percent to 92 percent from 2006 to 2008, before falling to 89 percent in 2009. It recovered to 93 percent in 2010, and has since then been at 90s levels, reaching a record-high 96 percent in 2017.
Distribution of the result was highest in Balance Luzon at 97%, followed by Metro Manila at 96%.
Despite the challenges the two remaining regions faced with ravaging typhoons and the recent war that broke out in Marawi City, hope in Mindanao topped at 95%, while Visayas at 95%.
The one-point rise in the overall New Year hope from 2016 to 2017 was due to the increases in the Visayas and Metro Manila, combined with steady high scores in Balance Luzon, said SWS.
As per the firm, New Year hope stayed at 97% in Balance Luzon, an all-time high score for this area that was first achieved in 2013.
It stayed at 95% in Mindanao, also an all-time high for this area that surpassed the previous record of 94% in 2011.
Meanwhile, it rose by one point in Metro Manila, from 95 percent in 2016 to 96 percent in 2017 and three points in the Visayas, from 92 percent in 2016 to 95 percent in 2017. (PNA)
