THE government’s catch-up spending plan, along with the targeted subsidies program, likely helped improve personal optimism among Filipinos, based on the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.
Results from the survey conducted between June 20-29, 2026 showed 48 percent of adult respondents expecting a better quality of life in the next 12 months, with a net personal optimism score of +40, up from +23 in the survey conducted last March.
SWS said the June 2026 net personal optimism score of excellent +40 percent is the highest after the +41 excellent in June last year.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort told the Philippine News Agency that government programs to lift people’s economic situation, especially those for hardest-hit sectors such as transportation, agriculture, and fisheries, among others, are major factors in improving their welfare.
“More sustainable and structural solutions to lift more people from poverty would be education as the biggest equalizer, nutrition programs to increase completion rate for the poorest of the poor, making them eligible for employment locally and abroad, start earning in a sustainable manner and lift their families from poverty,” he said.
“Creation of an environment more conducive to job/employment opportunities, investments, business would also be more important to help lift more people from poverty,” he added.
In terms of economic growth, Ricafort said “the national government catch up spending, especially on infrastructure, as awaited by the markets since early this year, would be the major catalyst to pump-prime the economy and lead to faster GDP (gross domestic product) growth to counteract the effects of geopolitical risks that led to higher prices/inflation and interest rates.”
He also cited the need to “pass more priority reform measures, especially those that level up the country’s governance standards to further improve investor confidence/sentiment.”
These moves, he said, “should be somewhat consistent with the country graduating to upper middle-income status after nearly 40 years or since 1987, amid more employed Filipinos locally and abroad over the years.”
“Going forward, technology, on top of education, is one of the biggest equalizers that would lift more people from poverty, especially in the countryside, by increasing productivity and incomes of the country’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors through the use of the best global technologies to boost production and reduce production costs, thereby increasing global competitiveness, incomes/jobs/livelihoods, increase food security/sufficiency, and lower prices/inflation,” he added.
