How is your quality of life before and during the pandemic?
We can't count on the fingers of one hand the number of times our local newspapers and online business forums shared utterly disheartening news such as the one disseminated by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) on Tuesday, October 26, 2021.
The poll-gathering body announced that in its latest study, more than half of 57 per cent of Filipinos said that their lives have become harder in the past 12 months and under the gruelling COVID-19 lockdowns.
This devastating conclusion came from a non-commissioned survey conducted from September 12 to 16, using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents who are aged 18 years old and above. Among these numbers, there were 300 people interviewed from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.
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Respondents were asked the following question:
“Comparing your quality of life these days to how it was 12 months ago, would you say that your quality of life is better now than before, same as before, or worse now than before?”
The majority or 57 per cent reported that the quality of their lives worsened, 13 per cent said they have been better, while the remaining 29 per cent said their lives neither changed nor become worse.
The net gainer scores worsened in all the areas included but the lowest was seen in the Philippines' capital city which the SWS dubbed "catastrophic".
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Tatler delves deeper into the pressing problems that Filipinos have been waging since the pandemic began: