More than eight in 10 Filipino adults disapprove of the Marcos administration’s handling of inflation as rising prices remain by far the country’s most urgent concern, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey.
Pulse Asia’s September 2026 Ulat ng Bayan found 81 percent disapproved of the administration’s efforts to control inflation, compared with only 10 percent who approved and another 10 percent who were undecided.
Inflation also topped the list of issues Filipinos want the government to address immediately, cited by 71 percent of respondents.
The level of concern over inflation rose sharply from 57 percent in July to 71 percent in September, a 14-percentage-point increase.
Compared with September 2025, concern over inflation climbed even further, from 54 percent to 71 percent, or 17 percentage points.
Inflation was the only issue cited as urgent by majorities across every geographic area and socioeconomic class, ranging from 60 percent to 76 percent by location and 60 percent to 75 percent across classes.
Corruption, wages follow
Fighting graft and corruption ranked a distant second among urgent national concerns at 39 percent, followed by increasing workers’ pay at 36 percent.
Other leading concerns were fighting criminality at 24 percent, reducing poverty at 21 percent, creating more jobs at 18 percent and fighting illegal drugs also at 18 percent.
Lowering gasoline prices amid the energy crisis was cited by 14 percent.
While corruption remained the second-most cited concern, its urgency rating declined from 43 percent in July and 51 percent in September last year.
Public dissatisfaction with the administration’s handling of corruption, however, remained high.
Seventy percent disapproved of its efforts to fight graft and hold corrupt officials accountable, while only 15 percent approved.
The administration also recorded high disapproval on fighting illegal drugs at 71 percent, reducing poverty at 67 percent, lowering gasoline prices at 65 percent and fighting criminality at 57 percent.
On workers’ pay, cited as urgent by more than a third of respondents, 49 percent disapproved of the government’s performance while 29 percent approved.
Only one majority approval
Protecting the welfare of overseas Filipino workers was the only issue on which the administration received majority approval, at 52 percent.
However, OFW welfare was cited as an urgent national concern by just 1 percent of respondents.
The administration also received a plurality approval rating of 40 percent for responding to calamity-affected areas, against 35 percent disapproval.
Public opinion was nearly evenly divided on helping farmers and defending Philippine territorial integrity.
Pulse Asia conducted face-to-face interviews with 2,400 adults nationwide from 17 to 24 September. The survey has a ±2 percentage-point error margin at the 95-percent confidence level nationally and ±4 points for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.
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