Most Filipinos still prefer bets with pro-PH stance on WPS issue

MANILA, Philippines — The majority of Filipinos continue to prefer candidates who believe the Philippines must assert its rights in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey commissioned by the Stratbase Group revealed.

Conducted from April 11 to 14, the survey found that 75 percent of Filipino respondents favor “a candidate who believes that the Philippines must assert our rights against China’s aggressive actions in the West Philippine Sea.”

The figure, however, is 3 percentage points lower than the 78 percent recorded in the same survey conducted in February.

Based on the results of the April survey, the majority of respondents who prefer candidates with a pro-Philippines stance on the WPS issue came from class D, with 76 percent. This was followed by class ABC with 72 percent and class E with 59 percent.

READ: 84% of Filipinos back gov’t move to assert rights in West PH Sea – Octa

On the other hand, 25 percent of Filipinos said they favor candidates who do not believe the country should assert its rights against China. This was a three-percentage-point increase from 22 percent in the February survey.

The majority of respondents who felt this way came from class E, with 41 percent. Next was class ABC with 28 percent and class D with 24 percent.

Stratbase president Dindo Manhit warned that China’s disinformation campaign against the Philippines has been “enabled and magnified” ahead of the May 12 elections, particularly by candidates with “a history of favoring Chinese interests” who “now package themselves as patriots during election season.”

With only two weeks left before Election Day, Manhit again urged the public to carefully and thoroughly scrutinize this year’s candidates and their track records.

The survey had 1,800 respondents nationwide and a plus-or-minus 2 percent margin of error. —Inquirer Research

(2025/04/29-05:00)