Half of Filipinos 'feel powerless' to fight corruption

More than half of Filipinos expressed belief that–from where they stand–there is nothing that they could not do to combat corruption in government.

The latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on personal efficacy against corruption found that 52 percent of Filipinos agreed that ordinary individuals had no impact on combating public officials that were abusing their positions.

SWS classified the results from June 2026 as moderately weak, while noting that it was not any different from the agency’s discoveries earlier in the year.

The research agency said that the findings during the current year were the worst when comparing it to similar tests that were conducted in 2006, 2008, 2009, and December of 2025.

“With net disagreement twice as negative in any earlier reading, 2026 continues to be the worst year for personal efficacy against corruption in the whole series,” he said.

The particular statement used to assess the insight of survey participants is “A person like me cannot do anything to reduce corruption in the government.”

SWS noted that it was different from the statement used in previous tests which was “It is just too difficult for someone like me to fight corruption in government,” fielded by respondents a total of nine times from 2002 to 2012.

Notably, the latter phrase drew a lower net score of -46, which the agency classifies as very weak which means that more Filipinos used to believe that they could do something about corruption.

Higher disbelief in Visayas, least educated

When splitting the results by region, SWS said that Visayas logged the highest net disagreement at -10, while people from Mindanao and Luzon had scores of -21 and -23, respectively.

The agency, however, noted that the results dropped from its previous neutral finding (0) from March.

Metro Manila, meanwhile, continued to log the highest mark in terms of disagreement with a score of -37.

Another factor that the survey looked into was the educational attainment of its participants, observing that the least educated individuals expressed the least belief in their personal efficacy.

Separately, the survey also found that individuals who were satisfied in the current administration’s efforts in eradicating corruption posted a higher net disagreement score to the statement used in the survey.

SWS said that it conducted its survey on 1,200 adults around the country, with 300 participants taken from Metro Manila, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

Its estimates were reportedly taken from the medium-population projects of the Philippine Statistics Authority for 2026.