Public Thumbs Up on COVID Responses
The PAHAYAG End-of-the-Year survey is an independent and non-commissioned poll done by PUBLiCUS Asia Inc. covering the period of December 3-9, 2020. It is a nationwide purposive sampling survey comprised of 1500 respondents drawn from a research panel of approximately 100K Filipinos maintained by a Singapore-based firm. The survey research panel was restricted to registered voters. Parameters based on respondent age and location were also considered in the sample formulation in order for the resulting sample to conform more closely to the features of the voting population as defined by statistics from the COMELEC. The reading was divided by super regions: NCR, Northern and Central Luzon (NCL), Southern Luzon (SL), Visayas (VIS), and Mindanao (MIN).
In the assessment of COVID-19 responses, the Office of the President and the IATF garnered total approval levels exceeding 60% (~68% and ~63% respectively). Most of the other departments or agencies directly involved in the COVID response registered approval ratings between 50% and 58% with standouts being DOST and DSWD.
Most of the agencies that scored approval levels below 50% can be viewed to be policy centric – SENATE, HOR, NEDA, DBM, and Supreme Court.
The Office of the Vice President garnered the lowest total approval rating of ~41% and the highest disapproval rating of ~28%. DepEd recorded a comparable disapproval rating of ~25% but had a markedly higher approval rating of ~48%.
COVID health safety protocols enjoy high to near-universal levels of acceptance among respondents. Most respondents appear to be prepared or willing to keep practicing these protocols beyond the lifting of the GCQ.
More than half of the respondents indicated that they would SIMPLIFY GATHERINGS WITH FAMILY MEMBERS (~64%), CANCEL CHRISTMAS PARTIES WITH FRIENDS (~62%), and/or CANCEL CHRISTMAS PARTIES WITH FAMILY MEMBERS (~57%). Close to half indicated that they intend to spend less on FIRECRACKERS (~49%), CHRISTMAS GIFTS (~45%), and/or NOCHE BUENA (~39%).
The majority of respondents (~80%) indicated that COVID remains a VERY DANGEROUS THREAT with less than 1% indicating that it is NOT A DANGEROUS THREAT.
Nine (9) modules were analyzed in this run: state of the economy and economic prospects, assessment of COVID-19 responses, national issues, leadership scorecard, emotional quotient of leaders, media consumption habits and responses to media campaigns, predisposition, travel likelihood, and blended learning.
The last PAHAYAG survey was done in August 2020, right after the State of the Nation Address. PUBLiCUS has been doing commissioned surveys as early as 2007 and launched its PAHAYAG brand in 2017 as its CSR, addressing the need for timely, relevant, and actionable information. PUBLiCUS likewise introduced in its PAHAYAG surveys new metrics: Emotional Quotient (or the Love, Care and Solidarity Index), electoral predisposition instead of preference since there are no official list of candidates yet, as well as household sentiments to complement existing optimism metrics. PUBLiCUS also employs its proprietary software (CAPI instead of PAPI) to facilitate the rapid release of results. PUBLiCUS remains committed to ensuring data integrity and the quality of our analytical outputs.
PUBLiCUS currently uses a research panel (i.e. individuals recruited to answer surveys) instead of face-to-face due to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19 and the lockdowns. It is treated as a non-random sample as it did not give every element in the population a nonzero chance of selection, nor did it base sample selection through a fully randomized procedure. Instead, its sample is drawn according to a set of parameters or variables that conform to the population under consideration (i.e. samples have to be a certain age, gender, voter profile, etc.).
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Reference:
Dr. David Yap
Chief Data Scientist
Email: dbyap@publicusltd.com
Cellphone: 09171679643
Website: www.publicusasia.com