Philippines lowest in ASEAN on pandemic response – survey

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has obtained the highest disapproval rating among member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in a survey conducted by a Singapore-based think tank.

Released Wednesday, the ASEAN Studies Center’s “The State of Southeast Asia 2021 survey report” showed Filipino respondents giving the government a disapproval rating of 56.7 percent (35.8 percent disapprove, 17.9 strongly disapprove) in terms of pandemic response.

It also showed that only 25.4 percent of the Filipino respondents approved of the Philippine government’s response (6 percent strongly approve, 19.4 percent approve), while the remaining 20.9 percent were neutral about the matter.

The Philippine government’s disapproval rating was the highest among the 10 ASEAN member states, followed by Indonesia at 50.4 percent and Thailand at 34.7 percent.

In terms of approval, the Philippines is second lowest after Indonesia with 24.1 percent.

Respondents from Vietnam, Brunei and Singapore gave their respective governments the highest approval rating at 96.6 percent, 93.9 percent and 92.4 percent, respectively.

The survey had a total of 1,032 participants, with 6.5 percent or around 67 coming from the Philippines. The largest group of respondents from the Philippines comes from the academic, think tank or research institutions, followed by those in the government, business or finance, civil society or media and regional or international organizations.

It also asked those who disapproved of the COVID-19 response in their countries to select up to two initiatives that can be adopted by their governments to better address the pandemic

Among Filipino respondents, the main thing was to encourage more scientists and medical doctors to contribute to public policy (72.2 percent), followed by investing in early warning systems for pandemic outbreak (58.3 percent).

Other options include offering better financial relief and subsidies to citizens affected by the pandemic (33.3 percent), ensuring that politicians and public servants observe health protocols (30.6 percent) and implementing public health measures such as mask wearing and social distancing (5.6 percent).

Asked which ASEAN member state provided the best leadership to the regional bloc during the pandemic, most Filipino respondents chose Singapore and Vietnam at 37.3 percent and 34.4 percent, respectively.

It largely reflected the general sentiment across the region, with Singapore at 32.7 percent and Vietnam at 31.1 percent.

Only 0.5 percent of the respondents – mostly Filipinos – said the Philippines provided the best leadership to ASEAN on COVID-19, the lowest among member states.

With 44.2 percent, the same survey also showed that respondents see China as the ASEAN dialogue partner that provided the most help to the region for the pandemic.

It was followed by Japan at 18.2 percent, the European Union at 10.3 percent and the United States at 9.6 percent.

Some 20.9 percent of Filipino respondents also agree that China has provided the most support to ASEAN for COVID-19, followed by EU and the US both at 16.4 percent.

Across all respondents, the top three challenges facing Southeast Asia that emerged were the threat of the pandemic, unemployment and widening socio-economic gaps and income disparity.

Top concerns about ASEAN include being slow and ineffective in coping with developments, becoming arena and proxies of major power competitions and not being able to overcome pandemic challenges.