In photo: Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. Vincent Ferrer, Banay-Banay San Vicente, Lipa City (Photo by THEPHILBIZNEWS/MAS
By Monsi A. Serrano
As the country continues to battle against the pandemic, Filipino people revealed where they put their trust and this is based on the latest Philippine Trust Index (PTI) study.
Conducted by the EON Group, the PTI 2021 determines how various institutions responded to the pandemic as it continues to create havoc in the lives of the people.
The research was nationwide research that cuts across socio-economic, educational, geographic, and demographic backgrounds to discover just how much Filipinos trust the six key institutions in society: the Government, the Business Sector, the Media, Non-Governmental Organizations, the Church and the Academe.
EON has been producing the PTI biannually in the past decade. For this year, it conducted a nationwide survey among 800 respondents from August to September 2021 and listened in on online conversations held between August 2020 and August 2021 to get a picture of the country’s landscape from the perspective of both the people on the ground and those who join discussions online.
With a theme RISE & RESPOND: Trust Rewards the Agile and the Future-Ready, it is interesting to note that the PTI 2021 study reveals that the trust level for the business sector declined while the other five institutions were able to maintain or even increase public trust in them from 2019. Four of them, notably the Church, the Academe, the Media, and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), saw a rise in trust. NGOs, in particular, saw the highest gain, nearly doubling its 2019 trust rating this year.
On the part of the government, only 5 institutions receive high trust rating and these are the Department of Education of 91 percent, followed by Pag-Ibig witn 89 percent, then DSWD at 88 percent, and finally both GSIS and BSP got 87 percent.
Meanwhile, the government agencies that are least trusted are the Office of the Ombudsman, Senate, Office of Vice-President, Department of Budget and Management, Presidential Communications Operations Office, and Department of Finance.
Aside from their trust levels, the study also delves into how the pandemic has changed the Filipinos’ perception of each institution’s trustworthiness based on their respective responses to the ongoing crisis. In this aspect, only the government saw the change in its negative perception outweighs the change in its positive one. “The pandemic has definitely taken a toll on us and has magnified the importance of trust,” says Junie del Mundo, co-founder and Chief Executive of the EON Group. “This year’s PTI will give you a better understanding of the state of trust in the Philippines, especially in a society that was torn apart by the cruel effects of a pandemic and the restrictions that it allowed to happen.”
Yet despite the difficult conditions of the past two years, 91% of the survey respondents chose the Philippines to be their country of permanent residence even once travel restrictions are eased post-pandemic. Those who said that they have plans of leaving the country would depart not to migrate but to pursue better work opportunities abroad.
These are just some of the interesting findings that were shared during the virtual launch of the 2021 PTI.
To help enrich the discussion around the study’s results during the launch, EON invited a panel of experts to give their insights on the country’s trust landscape: Kristian Ablan, undersecretary for Administration, Finance, and Freedom of Information at the Presidential Communications Operations Office; Ruth Novales, Corporate Affairs Executive for Nestlé Philippines; journalist Camille Elemia; Atty. Gianna Montonola, co-founder of Hands On Manila; ABS-CBN chaplain Rev. Fr. Tito Caluag; and Jamil Paolo Francisco, Ph.D., the interim School Head of the Stephen Zuellig Graduate School of Development and Management of AIM. The forum was moderated by Jayeel Cornelio, PhD, sociologist and director of Ateneo de Manila University’s Development Studies Program.
“With trust even more crucial, I hope that this year’s PTI results will help our institutions cultivate trust among stakeholders, help them navigate toward a better Philippines, and shape the leaders of today and the future,” del Mundo adds.
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