FILE PHOTO: Chinese and U.S. flags flutter outside a company building in Shanghai, China November 16, 2021. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo
MANILA, Philippines — Most Filipinos believe that the Philippines should trust countries such as the United States (US), Australia, and Japan the most, and China and Russia the least, a Pulse Asia survey released Friday showed.
The survey firm asked 1,200 adults in late June how much trust the Philippines should extend to a list of 10 countries.
Some 31 percent of respondents said that the Philippines should extend a “great deal of trust” to the US, while 58 percent said the Philippines should give its longest military and economic ally a “fair amount of trust.”
Pulse Asia Research President Ronald D. Holmes explained that the aggregate of those who responded with a “great deal of trust” and a “fair amount of trust” correspond to the trust rating.
With this, the US had a trust rating of 89 percent, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, the survey also showed that Australia had a trust rating of 79 percent while Japan scored 78 percent. They are followed by Germany (69 percent), South Korea (65 percent), United Kingdom (64 percent), Indonesia (60 percent), and India (51 percent).
Meanwhile, based on the survey, Russia and China had the lowest trust rating at 38 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
‘Distrust’ rating
On the other hand, the survey also showed that some 36 percent of Filipinos said that the Philippines should extend “not too much trust” on China, and another 31 percent who said that there should be “no trust at all.”
Holmes explained that the aggregate of those who responded with “not too much trust” and “no trust at all” correspond to the “distrust rating.”
This means China had a distrust rating of 67 percent, the survey showed. Russia, meanwhile, had a distrust rating of 62 percent.
“If you look at the totals with ‘not much trust’ and ‘no trust at all’, that total would be higher than the total of those who say ‘a great deal of trust’ and ‘a fair amount of trust,’” Holmes told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.
“Malinaw, mas marami ang hindi nagtitiwala kaysa sa malaki ang pagtitiwala o nagtitiwala sa China,” he added.
(It is clear that the number of those who do not trust China is higher than those who trust them.)
The survey was conducted from June 24 to 27, 2022 using face-to-face interviews. It has a ± 2.8 percent error margin at the 95 percent confidence level.
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Six of 10 Filipinos distrust China; US enjoys 84% support–survey