Of four countries tested for public trust, Filipinos had the highest trust rating in the United States at “very good,” according to Social Weather Stations.
SWS’ survey in the fourth quarter of 2018 found a very good +60 net trust rating for the United
States, a good net trust rating for Japan at +34 and Australia at +31, and a neutral -7 net trust rating for China.
Meanwhile, a think tank said despite China’s growing influence over Manila, the long-standing alliance between the United States and the Philippines remained strong, even as defense officials were set to meet for exploratory talks on the US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty, now the subject of a potential review.
The overview on the US-RP present security partnership was raised by the Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute through its President, Dindo Mahit, in defense of the position of Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin declaring that the vagueness of the MDT was deterrence against Beijing.
The SWS survey was conducted from Dec. 16 to 19, 2018 using face-to-face interviews of 1,440 adults aged 18 and above nationwide, and with sampling error margins of ±2.6 percent for national percentages and ±5 percent each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao.
The rating stayed very good for the United States at +60 with 71 percent much trust and 11 percent little trust. The change is minimal compared to the September 2018 survey in which the rating was +59.
The net trust rating rose by one grade from moderate to good for Japan, at +34 with 53 percent much trust, 19 percent little trust in December 2018, up by 6 points from +28 in September 2018.
The good rating for Australia was at +31 with 49 percent much trust and 19 percent little trust in December 2018. The rating was down by 5 points from +36 in June 2018.
SWS noted that the rating is the lowest in over nine years since the moderate +19 in September 2009.
The net trust rose from poor to neutral for China at -7 with 31 percent much trust, 39 percent little trust in December 2018, up by 23 points from -16 in September 2018.
Filipinos’ net trust rating for China has been positive in only 9 out of 48 surveys since SWS first surveyed it in August 1994. The survey reached as high as a moderate +17 in June 2010 and as low as a bad -46 in September 2015. With Francisco Tuyay
