Data released by research institution Social Weather Stations (SWS) yesterday revealed that Filipinos are optimistic about the country’s economic future.
This comes despite another finding the same study recorded that more Filipino families experienced hunger in the third quarter of 2017.
SWS interviewed 1,500 adults nationwide from Sept. 23 — 27.
It found that 11.8 percent of those surveyed — or an estimated 2.7 million families — experienced moderate or severe hunger in the past three months. This is 2.3 percent higher than the recorded data from the second quarter of this year.
Hunger, in this case, is one that was involuntary and brought about by the lack of food.
You know hunger is a serious problem when a Manila supermarket employee, who works around food all day, said he had to steal a can of corned beef worth only PHP31 (US$.62) because he was hungry.
But according to various surveys, Filipinos are some of the happiest people in the world, so it is not surprising that they are still hopeful about the future.
47 percent of those surveyed were categorized as “optimists” or those who expect the quality of their personal life to improve in the next 12 months. In contrast, only 4 percent expect it to get worse.
A large number of people were also positive about the future of the country’s economy. 43 percent believed the Philippine economy would get better and only 12 percent thought it would deteriorate.
It’s certainly laudable how Filipinos can remain optimistic and hopeful even though social injustice persists. This reality is especially clear when one realizes that on the same week the supermarket employee was arrested for stealing canned food, the tax evasion case of the controversial Jean Napoles was dismissed.
