NCR COVID-19 Survey: 25% have less than 1 week supply of food, water

MANILA – One out of four Metro Manila residents who participated in a recent survey conducted by political consultancy firm PUBLiCUS Asia, Inc. said they have less than one week’s supply of food and water to tide them over under the Luzon-wide Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).

25.1% of the 1,000 Metro Manila residents aged 18-70 who participated in the NCR COVID-19 Online Panel Survey said the supply of food and water of their households would only last them for less than a week. About one-third or 33.5% of respondents said their household supply of food and water would last at least one week.

Another quarter of the respondents or 25.3% said their food and water would last them “a week or two.” The remaining 16.1% said their household supplies would last them more than two weeks.

“These results make it clear that delivering food and water to constituents should be one of the primary concerns of the government under the extended ECQ,” said Mr. Aureli Sinsuat, PUBLiCUS Executive Director and spokesperson.

Sinsuat noted that 84.5% of survey respondents said they approve of the “provision of relief packs to households under quarantine.”

“Many LGUs in Metro Manila and other areas under lockdown have already provided food relief packs to their constituents, which is a good start. However, the survey results indicate that more food aid should be delivered to underprivileged families facing possible hunger or malnutrition under the ECQ,” Sinsuat said.

“Solving the food and water supply issue will likely boost the approval ratings of successful LGUs in upcoming runs of the survey,” Sinsuat added.

The first run of the NCR COVID-19 Online Panel Survey was conducted by PUBLiCUS and VOX Opinion Research in partnership with Singapore-based Lightspeed Research/Kantar Asia-Pacific from April 2-6, 2020.

Lightspeed conducted the fieldwork for the survey by providing an online panel of 1,000 Metro Manila residents aged 18-70, sourced from its cultivated pool of 100,000 Philippine panelists. The survey data was processed and analyzed by VOX Opinion Research.

Lightspeed is now the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Kantar, a titan of the global data industry with a panel reach of 88 million respondents in 90 markets worldwide according to its website.

The NCR COVID-19 Survey aims to gauge public opinion on the following key indicators: (1) approval rating on the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in NCR; (2) approval ratings of key public officials and government entities in responding to the pandemic; (3) support for existing and proposed government measures to respond to the pandemic and provide aid to constituents in need; and (4) living standards of Metro Manila residents under the ECQ.

The second run of the survey will start this week.

Reference: Mr. Aureli C. Sinsuat, PUBLiCUS Executive Director
Email: acsinsuat@publicusltd.com