3% of Pinoys believe Pacquiao a national hero - Pulse Asia

MANILA, Philippines - Nearly three percent of Filipinos believe world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao is the country’s national hero, a recent survey by Pulse Asia showed.

The Pulse Asia survey, conducted from May 21 to June 4, said Pacquiao is a national hero at 2.8 percent, a distant second from the 81.9-percent who named Dr. Jose Rizal as the national hero.

Six percent of respondents from the Visayas; 3.8 percent from Mindanao, 1.5 percent from balance Luzon and 0.7 percent from Metro Manila identified Pacquiao, elected representative of the lone congressional district of Sarangani province, as the national hero.

Rizal was identified by overwhelming majorities across geographic areas (64.6 percent to 95.7 percent) and socio-economic groupings (75.6 percent to 84.6 percent), Pulse Asia said.

The highest level of public awareness was recorded in Metro Manila (95.7 percent) while the lowest was registered in the Visayas (64.6 percent), the survey said.

On the other hand, less than two percent chose the martyred former senator Benigno Aquino Jr. as a national hero at 1.7 percent, in a tie with his son President Aquino.

The President’s mother, late President Corazon Aquino was hailed as a national hero by one percent of the respondents in the same survey.

Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo were considered as national heroes by 1.9 percent and one percent of respondents, respectively.

At least 3.6 percent of respondents did not identify any national hero while 2.1 percent said they do not know.

The Pulse Asia poll also showed that 51.1 percent of Filipinos believe no individual – living or deceased – comes close to Rizal.

The view that Rizal is incomparable is shared by near to small majorities across geographic areas (45.3 percent in the Visayas to 62.7 percent in Metro Manila) and socio-economic classes (48.1 percent in Class D to 59.5 percent in Class ABC).

However, 10.8 percent of them said Ninoy Aquino is comparable to Rizal.

Other personalities compared to Rizal are former President Ferdinand Marcos (5.4 percent), Pacquiao (4.8 percent), Corazon Aquino (four percent), Bonifacio (3.1 percent) and President Aquino (three percent).

Other personalities are cited by less than one percent of respondents.

Meanwhile, 6.3 percent are unable to identify any individual they consider to be comparable to Rizal.

The survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 representative adults. It has sampling error margin of plus or minus a three percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.

The survey on the country’s national hero comes in commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Rizal last June 19.

It was included in the Pulse Asia’s regular Ulat ng Bayan nationwide survey.