Filipinos expressed “cautious optimism” that the coming year will be much better than 2020.
Result of an online survey conducted by Church-run Radio Veritas 846 showed that about 79 percent of the survey respondents were “confident” of the coming year.
The survey results showed that 48 percent said they are “confident” that the coming year will be better, 14 percent said they are “somewhat confident,” and seven percent said they are “not confident.”
The respondents were asked “How Confident are you that the New Year (2021) will be a much better year than 2020?”
In another survey, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) reported that 91 percent of adult Filipinos will welcome the new year with hope rather than with fear.
The figure is five points down from the 96 percent in 2018 and the lowest since the 89 percent in 2009. Of those surveyed, seven percent said they will enter the new year with fear, up three points from the four percent in 2019.
Hope for the new year started at 87 percent when SWS first asked the question at the end of 2000.
The November 2020 survey found that 50 percent of adult Filipinos expected this Christmas to be happy, 15 percent expected it to be sad, and 33 percent expected it to be neither happy nor sad.
Among those who expected a happy Christmas, more have hope for the new year than among those who expected a sad Christmas.
The survey also found 48 percent of families rating themselves as poor, 36 percent feeling “borderline poor,” and only 16 percent feeling “not poor.”
New year hope among those from “not poor” and “borderline poor” families was 94 percent and 93 percent, respectively, compared to 89 percent among those from “poor families.”
“The experiences brought about by 2020 has prompted our respondents to choose a somewhat cautious optimism toward 2021,” said Clifford Sorita, head of the group that conducted the Radio Veritas survey.
“Hopeful yet guarded and tempered,” Sorita described the survey result.
“It is a feeling of general confidence regarding the new year and its possible outcome coupled with a sense of readiness for possible difficulties or disappointment,” he added.
“May this sense of optimism be an outpouring of grace to equip each and every one of us to be aware constantly of God’s presence, power and peace,” said Father Anton Pascual, president of Radio Veritas 846 and executive director of Caritas Manila.
“Let us overcome the fear and helplessness during this pandemic crisis and be anointed by the Spirit of power, love, and wisdom from heaven,” said the priest.
The Radio Veritas survey used a stratified sample of 1,200 respondents nationwide for a +/- 3 percent margin of error gathered through a text based and online data gathering process.
