Metro Manila women’s top pre-SONA concerns: Poverty, job creation – survey

MANILA, Philippines – Addressing poverty and hunger, as well as the creation of jobs, were among the top concerns of women in vote-rich communities in Metro Manila, according to a new survey released days before President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA).

In a survey conducted by the Center for Women’s Resources (CWR) from June 15 to July 12, women aged 18 and above from mostly low-income households said they wanted the government to focus on their issues that directly impacted their lives.

The following are what they thought the government should prioritize:

The CWR presented the results in a media forum on Friday, July 19.

The 897 surveyed women were mostly between the ages of 35 and 54, with around 41% representation. The 25 to 34 age group came as the second largest group at 18.3% representation.

The respondents who worked earned P15,000 or less, while 32.9% of them were unemployed. Most were self-employed at 35.5%, while just 7.2% worked in formal establishments.

CWR also asked the respondents about their views on charter change (Cha-Cha), which the Marcos government, like previous administrations, has tried to push. Most of the respondents did not fully understand it.

While majority, or 59.1% had heard of charter change mostly from conventional media sources, only 14.5% were able to give a brief description of charter change.

Around half did not know or could not concretely explain how charter change might affect them and their families. Around 23% meanwhile said that changing the Constitution “will only worsen their already poor economic conditions with the loss of jobs, lesser income, and higher prices of goods and utilities that it might entail.”

Just 3.6% said that charter change could potentially change their lives for the better.

The opinions of the Metro Manila women were similar to another Pulse Asia survey about Filipinos’ most urgent national concerns. It was conducted in a similar time period, from June 17 to 24.

The most urgent concern in the Pulse Asia survey was controlling inflation, followed by increasing workers’ pay, reducing poverty, creating more jobs, and fighting graft and corruption.

According to CWR