More Filipinos want lower food prices, less corruption in government
Filipinos want the government to focus on bringing down food prices, creating more jobs and eliminating corruption, according to the latest Pulse survey commissioned by Stratbase Institute.
The survey conducted from Feb. 27 to March 2 and released on Thursday found that 41 percent of the respondents wanted government officials to address “hav[ing] more affordable food prices in your area, such as rice, meat and fish.”
This was 3 percentage points higher compared with a similar survey in December 2025, where 38 percent of respondents said they wanted more affordable food prices.
This sentiment was highest in Luzon outside Metro Manila and Mindanao, both at 46 percent. Compared with December’s results, there was a 5 percentage point increase in Luzon outside Metro Manila, from 41 percent and a 6 percentage point increase in Mindanao, from 40 percent.
In Metro Manila, it was at 33 percent (up from 31 percent) and 26 percent in the Visayas (down from 35 percent).
Among classes, the sentiment was highest in Class D at 41 percent (up from 39 percent). It was followed by Class E at 40 percent, which was also the highest increase for the sentiment compared with the previous survey (up 7 percentage points from 33 percent).
Other issues
The March survey also found that 26 percent of respondents wanted the government to focus on reducing or eliminating corruption to “provide better services to the community,” while 24 percent wanted a higher focus on creating more jobs and livelihood opportunities. Lastly, 10 percent wanted a higher focus on providing “accessible education and health-care services.”
Lessening or eliminating corruption in the latest survey was 5 percentage points lower than December’s 31 percent, while creating more jobs was 3 percentage points higher than the previous 21 percent.
Metro Manila had the highest tally for lessening or eliminating corruption as the primary national concern at 31 percent (down from December’s 38 percent), followed by Luzon outside Metro Manila at 30 percent (unchanged from December), the Visayas at 23 percent (down from 27 percent) and Mindanao at 16 percent (down from 31 percent).
Meanwhile, the Visayas had the highest tally for choosing creating more jobs at 43 percent (up from 27 percent), followed by Mindanao at 28 percent (up from 22 percent), Metro Manila at 23 percent (up from 17 percent) and Luzon outside Metro Manila at 14 percent (down from 19 percent).
Providing accessible education and health-care services—which stayed unchanged at 10 percent on a national level from December 2025—got its highest score in Metro Manila at 13 percent (down from 14 percent), followed by Mindanao and Luzon outside Metro Manila at 10 percent (up from 7 percent and unchanged, respectively) and the Visayas at 8 percent (down from 11 percent).
Stratbase Institute president and CEO Victor Andres “Dindo” Manhit said the findings reflected the growing anxiety over food security and inflation among Filipinos amid the ongoing Middle East crisis. He urged the government to respond decisively to these concerns by stabilizing food and gas prices, cracking down on profiteers and expanding state subsidies to protect the most vulnerable sectors.
The survey, which showed cards with different concerns to 1,200 total respondents, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.8 percent.
