Malacañang had no comment, saying it had not yet seen the results.
Malacañang had no comment, saying it had not yet seen the results.
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Malacañang had no comment, saying it had not yet seen the results.
One in three Filipinos said their quality of life worsened over the past year, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, painting a less rosy picture than the country’s new “upper-middle-income” status conveyed.
The 20 to 29 June survey found 33 percent of adult Filipinos saying their lives had worsened, while 34 percent said their situation was unchanged, and only 33 percent said it had improved.
That produced a net-gainers score of zero, which SWS classified as “fair” — a sharp improvement from the -26 recorded in March but still hardly a ringing endorsement of economic well-being.
The score had fallen from +12 in June 2025 to -2 in September, -7 in November, and finally -26 in March 2026 before recovering in June.
Metro Manila had the lowest score at -13, classified as “mediocre.” The Visayas registered -1, while Mindanao and Balance Luzon posted +3 and +4, respectively.
The survey covered 1,200 adults nationwide through face-to-face interviews.
Malacañang had no comment, saying it had not yet seen the results.
The survey was conducted just weeks before the government announced that the Philippines had graduated to upper-middle-income status, based on a gross national income per capita of $4,850, above the World Bank’s $4,636 threshold.
But an economic upgrade on paper does not necessarily mean an upgrade in the household budget.
Makati Business Club chairman Edgar Chua said GDP per capita is an average that can obscure the experience of most Filipinos.
“Because even if they say, hey, we are rich in terms of GDP per capita, remember, GDP per capita is an average. If 10 percent is rich, 90 percent is still grappling. So we have a serious problem and that’s not sustainable,” Chua said in a roundtable interview Thursday.
“Our debt is now P19 trillion. We need to build a stronger middle-income class. And then those who are in the bottom, we have to lift them,” he sressed.
Chua said the middle class is also seeing its standard of living decline while it continues to bear the tax burden.
The country may have moved up an income bracket, but the question is whether its people have moved up with it.
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