Pulse Asia: Most Filipinos distrust China, Russia; US, Canada trusted

MANILA, Philippines — Most Filipinos believe that the Philippines cannot trust Russia and China too much or not trust these countries at all, a Pulse Asia survey bared Friday.

The survey, conducted from June 24 to 30, 2019 among 1,200 respondents, revealed that 74 percent believe that the Philippines should not trust China at all, while 57 percent said Russia should not be trusted at all.

Meanwhile, trust is the predominant sentiment toward Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam, according to the major pollster.

Small to huge majorities of Filipinos say the Philippines should extend a great deal or fair amount of trust on the United States (89 percent), Japan (79 percent), Australia (76 percent), Canada (71 percent), Malaysia (63 percent), the United Kingdom (56 percent), Indonesia (56 percent), and Vietnam (53 percent).

More particularly, the prevailing opinion among Filipinos is that the Philippines should extend a fair amount of trust on Australia (63 percent), Canada (59 percent), Japan (59 percent), the US (56 percent), and Malaysia (51 percent).

Pulse Asia Research Inc.

Meanwhile, big pluralities are of the view that the Philippines should show a fair amount of trust towards the United Kingdom (47 percent), Indonesia (47 percent), and Vietnam (44 percent), the Pulse Asia survey added.

“Public opinion on the matter remains essentially unchanged between December 2018 and June 2019,” Pulse Asia noted.

The nationwide survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews of adults 18 years old and above. It has a ± 2.8% error margin at the 95 percent confidence level. /muf

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