MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos are generally more trustful towards the United States while strongly wary of China and Russia, new survey results released by Pulse Asia suggest.
The survey results released to the media Friday morning found that the Filipinos felt a "fair amount of trust" should be afforded to the United Kingdom, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, the United States, Germany and Australia.
Those countries made up seven out of the ten countries the survey asked respondents about. The remaining countries were India, Russia and China, for whom 48%, 62% and 67% of respondents said they had "not too much trust" or "no trust at all," respectively.
"In the case of Russia, nearly the same percentages of adults are of the view that the Philippines must extend either a fair amount or not too much trust in the said country (31% versus 36%). While as far as China is concerned, virtually the same percentages say the Philippines should either trust China a little (36%) or not trust the said country at all," Pulse Asia said.
Of note, 31% of interviewees said they felt that the Philippines should extend "a great deal of trust" to the United States, the country’s longest ally both militarily and economically. 22% said the same for Japan.
"For the most part, public opinion on the matter is essentially constant between September 2019 and June 2022," Pulse Asia said.
In that time span, trust in Australia, China, and Great Britain improved by up to seven percentage points, while Filipinos who said the country should not trust South Korea too much also dropped by seven percentage points.
Pulse Asia conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult Filipinos from June 24 to 27 and reported error margins of ±2.8% good for a 95% confidence level.
‘Enemy of none’
Over his six years in office, former president Rodrigo Duterte was largely antagonistic towards the United States, which found itself on the receiving end of not-so-diplomatic rants while the then-chief executive cozied up to China.
After a 75-year history of diplomatic relations, Duterte time and time again threatened to scrap the Visiting Forces Agreement, which outlines the agreement for military exercises between the Philippines and the US.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. at his first State of the Nation Address on Monday said that he would push for an independent foreign policy of being a "friend to all and enemy of none."
“I will not preside over any process that will abandon even a square inch of territory of the Republic of the Philippines to any foreign power...If we agree, we will cooperate and work together. If we differ, we will talk more until we agree,” he said.
“But we will not waver, we will stand firm in our independent foreign policy, with the national interest as our primordial guide. We commit to maintaining good relations with the rest of the world,” he added.
Diplomats have met Marcos to discuss cooperation between the Philippines and their respective states.
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— Franco Luna with reports from Kaycee Valmonte