‘Pinoys see Philippine politics as corrupt, disorderly’

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino voters generally have a negative view of Philippine politics, with more than half describing it either as “magulo” or “corrupt or all about money,” a recent survey undertaken by Pulse Asia showed.

The survey, conducted from Feb. 20 to 26, found that 37.9 percent of the respondents characterize the country’s politics as “magulo” or disorderly.

Another 17.3 percent said it was “corrupt” or “all about money.”

Some 10.9 percent said that it lacks unity and is full of infighting, while 5.8 percent described it as “cheating” or “vote buying.”

Only 4.2 percent described Philippine politics as “maayos” or orderly, the leading positive characterization among the answers of the respondents.

It was followed by more negative traits, including “exclusive, dynasties or elitists” (2.6 percent), “false promises” (2.6 percent), “personal interests” (1.7 percent), “fighting over a position” (1.4 percent) and “weak governance and failure to respond to key issues” (1.4 percent).

Other descriptions given by the respondents included “return of criminality” (1.3 percent), “abuse of position” (1.2 percent), “killings” (1.1 percent) and “difficult situation and hardships” (1.0 percent).

Less than one percent of the respondents provided 16 other descriptions, including “unfair,” “rotten,” “no change,” “full of anomalies,” “complicated,” “low standards,” “only about popularity.”

Aside from “maayos” or orderly, the only positive characterizations given by the survey respondents were “unity” (0.3 percent), “democratic” (0.03 percent) and “with progress” (0.01 percent).

The survey had 2,400 respondents and a margin of error of plus/minus two percent.