What Worries You
A few weeks ago, I was handed an interesting Pulse Asia survey entitled, “June 2025 Nationwide Survey on Filipinos’ Urgent Personal and National Concerns, and the National Administration’s Performance Ratings.” Aside from election surveys, Pulse Asia and other polling firms are known to come up with very interesting research that has nothing to do with voting preferences. SWS, for instance, comes up with its self poverty surveys. In this case, I found the Pulse Asia survey on “Urgent Personal and National Concerns” very interesting because it was conducted after the midterm elections and before the State of the Nation Address (SONA). They are useful for governance and policymaking, not just for campaign managers and crafting slogans and jingles.
The survey, conducted between June 26 and 30, 2025, was based on 1,200 “representative adults 18 years old and above” and has a 95 percent confidence level. The respondents were asked to enumerate both personal and national concerns but for the purpose of this article I will just focus on responses about personal concerns. The respondents were asked to list a maximum of three personal concerns and to rank them in order of urgency (“Alin po ang unang pinakamabilis na gusto ninyong maisagawa?”).
Topping the list is “To stay healthy and avoid illnesses” which nationally was picked by 64 percent of the respondents. This was followed closely by “To have a secure and well-paying job or source of income” which was the urgent concern of 53 percent of those surveyed. It should be noteworthy that having a well-paying job was ranked first by more people (28 percent) compared to personal health (24 percent).
The other personal concerns that made the list were “To be able to have some savings” (45 percent), “To finish schooling or to be able to provide schooling for our children” (44 percent), “At least to be able to have enough to eat every day” (43 percent), “To avoid being a victim of any serious crime (28 percent) and “To have my own house and lot” (23 percent). It is also worthy to note which personal concerns respondents ranked first: well-paying job (28 percent), health (24 percent), schooling (16 percent), enough to eat daily (10 percent), house and lot (nine percent), crime (seven percent), and, have some savings (six percent).
I find it interesting because one could argue that getting a well-paying job and having some savings can pretty much address all the other concerns except for criminality. And when you look at the result based on socio-economic background, this contrast is magnified. Seventy-four of those classified as class “ABC” said that health was their primary concern (savings was second at 54 percent) while 60 percent of those classified as Class E thought a well-paying job was a personal concern (savings was also second for them at 53 percent).
If you were a policymaker how would this information inform your action? I think that these studies are more important than election surveys. Kudos to Pulse Asia and SWS for bringing these data to light despite the fact that they are not “saucy” or spicy enough to merit the kind of public attention electoral surveys garner. But these are the numbers that matter.
I hope that legislators and government officials read these surveys and would now focus their energies on improving healthcare and employment. Despite the enactment of the Universal Health Care Act of 2019, healthcare accessibility remains spotty, especially in rural provinces. Healthcare costs remain high and a shortage of healthcare professionals as well as high medicine costs explain why this issue is on top of our people’s mind.
Camille, the millennial senator and my daughter, has made these two issues her priorities. Her first priority measures focused on health: the establishment of a Cancer Medicine and Treatment Assistance Fund for indigents; the establishment of dialysis wards in all national, regional, and provincial government hospitals; the safeguarding of the health of Filipino mothers at the time of childbirth; and, establishing early detection and intervention services for children with special needs.
Another priority of Camille, which is something we have discussed extensively even prior to her decision to run for Senator is mental health. She has filed a bill seeking to include mental health disorders in PhilHealth’s benefit packages and she is seeking to give workers in both the public and private sectors, mental health wellness leaves. I have always believed, for instance, that government needs to do a better job in training teachers on how to handle students’ mental health issues. And we need to provide more support to our guidance counselors so they can help us address this serious issue.
Our people’s personal and national concerns should be the motivation of all our government officials. When Filipinos fill up their ballots and feed them to the counting machines, their expectation is that elected officials will work hard in order to help them address issues that impact their ability to achieve their dreams. They are not asking for dole outs, they are not asking government to give them freebies, they are asking government officials to do the jobs they were elected for.
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