Palace welcomes survey making PH world’s 3rd happiest country

Roque described the survey as “good news”. (Photo By GinaD – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA— Malacanang on Tuesday welcomed American polling firm Gallup International’s survey showing the Philippines as the third happiest country in the world.

“We Filipinos are known as a happy, resilient people. We even manage to smile amid difficulties. It is therefore not surprising that we rank high in the global happiness index,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a press statement.

According to Gallup International’s 41st Annual Global End of the Year Survey, the Philippines got a net score of +84 behind Fiji and Colombia, which are the top two happiest countries with a score of +92 and +87, respectively.

Roque described the survey as “good news,” since the Philippines also entered the year 2018 as the fifth most optimistic about the country’s economic prosperity and the 9th most optimistic about the prospects for 2018.

He said the Filipinos’ optimism could be attributed to the “palpable change our people have felt under the leadership of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.”

“Our economy is one of the fastest growing in the region,” Roque said, noting the local stock market ended the last trading day of 2017 at an all-time high.

Roque also said that the Board of Investments (BOI)-approved investments are record-breaking, while the government decisively liberated Marawi City.

“Our people have, indeed, appreciated these changes as reflected in the survey numbers,” Roque said.

He said the challenge now for the government is to sustain the pace and momentum of the country’s economic growth and “bring it to the greatest numbers of our people.”

In its year-end survey, Gallup International found that 86 percent of Filipinos were happy, 2 percent were unhappy, and 10 percent were undecided.

It leads to a net score of 84 percent. It is higher than the previous year’s 79 percent, but the country has maintained its rank with the previous.

Nearly half of Filipinos, on the other hand, are optimistic for 2018. The hope index noted 44 percent were optimistic for the New Year, while 4 percent were pessimistic.

The survey also found 48 percent of Filipinos were undecided for the New Year, which leads to a net score of 40 percent.

Nearly half of Filipinos were also optimistic about economic prosperity at 42 percent, while 10 percent were pessimistic.

Another 46 percent were undecided. It leads to a net rating of 32 percent.