Pinoys confident gov’t can handle another super typhoon – survey

MANILA, Philippines - A majority of Filipinos has expressed  confidence that the government is capable of handling another typhoon as powerful as Yolanda, results of the latest Social Weather Stations’ (SWS) survey showed.

The survey, conducted from Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, used face-to-face interviews of 1,800 Filipino adults nationwide.

Results of the survey were published yesterday in the BusinessWorld.

SWS said six in 10 Filipinos expressed “much confidence” – a combination of those who have “very much confidence” and “somewhat much confidence” – in the ability of the city or municipality (63 percent), barangay (61 percent), national (61 percent) and provincial governments (58 percent) to respond in case of a Yolanda-like typhoon.

Of the 63 percent who said they have much confidence in the city or municipal government, 18 percent expressed “very much confidence,” 44 percent was “somewhat much confidence,” 26 percent were “somewhat little confidence,” and 11 percent “very little confidence.

In the case of the national government, 17 percent said they had “very much confidence,” while 44 percent had “somewhat much confidence,” 27 percent “somewhat little confidence,” and 12 percent with “very little confidence.”

About two in 10 Filipinos or equivalent to 16 percent had “very much confidence” in the provincial government, 42 percent had “somewhat much confidence,” 29 percent “somewhat little confidence,” and 12 percent “very little confidence.”

Twenty percent of the respondents said they had “very much confidence” with the barangay response, 41 percent had “somewhat much confidence,” 24 percent “somewhat little confidence,” and 14 percent “very little confidence.”

Yolanda – the world’s strongest typhoon in 2013 – devastated the Eastern Visayas on Nov. 8 last year.

More than 6,000 people were reported killed in the disaster that also left P39.8 billion worth of damage to property.