MANILA: A pre-election survey conducted by the group Boses, Opinyon, Siyasat at Siyensya para sa Pilipinas (Boses Pilipinas) revealed that Filipinos desire leaders that are strong, honest and intelligent (pic).
Sixty-nine percent of the respondents said they prefer candidates who could provide strong leadership, 55 percent said it is important for candidates to be honest while 42 percent said intelligence is crucial to a candidate.
Meanwhile, 37 percent of the respondents said they prefer candidates who get things done, 33 percent said they want morally upright candidates while 19 percent said they want compassionate candidates.
Boses Pilipinas convenor Dr. Imelda Deinla said the results could help Filipinos evaluate their candidates.
“With all the noise in media and social media platforms — as well as the highly curated portrayal of the candidates in their campaigns, it is really important to ask the Filipino voters the qualities they are looking for in the candidates. Thus, we ask in the survey what are the character traits they would like to see in a candidate, rather than ask them first why they prefer this one candidate over the others,” Deinla said.
Moreover, the same survey also showed that 60 percent of Filipinos see graft and corruption as the most urgent national concern, followed by the creation of more jobs (50 percent), controlling the spread of the coronavirus disease-19 (48 percent), social services to reduce poverty (45 percent), and the increase of pay for workers (44 percent).
“This survey challenges Filipinos to reflect, to evaluate their candidates with the kind of leader they want to address the most important issues the country is facing, and to seek credible information in assessing their candidates and not just based on popularity. Most of all, imagine your candidates as being capable — or not, in leading the Philippines out of the Covid-19 and economic crises,” Deinla said.
Boses Pilipinas conducted the survey among 1,500 respondents from November 29 to December 14, 2021, in cooperation with Rakuten Insight, an independent research firm based in Singapore.
Boses Pilipinas is the first university-based opinion research and survey unit in the country that aspires to bridge societal divides through studies and polls that increase the Filipinos’ understanding of opinions, perceptions, attitudes and behavior.
In addition to the character traits of candidates, the same survey also asked the respondents to identify from a list the top five issues that the current administration should immediately address.
Fighting graft and corruption emerged as the top priority with 60 percent, followed by creating more jobs (50 percent), controlling the spread of Covid-19 (48 percent), social services reducing poverty (45 percent), improve or increasing the pay of workers (44 percent), eliminating the sale or use of illegal drugs (37 percent), controlling the price of goods and services (36 percent) and defending the integrity of Philippine territory against foreigners (32 percent).
Other issues include equally enforcing the rule of law (30 percent), increasing peace in the country by fighting crime and terrorism (29 percent), stopping the destruction of the environment (23 percent), reducing the amount of taxes paid (21 percent) and protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers (18 percent).
At the bottom of the list were controlling fast population growth (10 percent), reimposition of the death penalty (nine- percent) and changing the Constitution (nine percent).
