Pinoys confident 2021 would be better year: Veritas survey

FILE: Passengers of a traditional jeepney along Kamias Road, Quezon City on Wednesday (August 19, 2020) wear face masks and face shields as protection from getting infected with the coronavirus disease. (PNA photo Robert O. Alfilert)

MANILA – With only four days before the New Year, a Church-run survey showed Filipinos are confident that 2021 would be a better year.

Based on the results of the Veritas Truth Survey (VTS) initiated by Radio Veritas, roughly five out of 10 Filipinos or 48 percent feels confident and are looking forward for a better 2021.

The 1,200 respondents nationwide were asked, “How confident are you that the new year (2021) will be a much better year than 2020?”

The survey was conducted from Nov. 20 to Dec. 20.

It also revealed that only 31 percent (three out of 10 Filipinos) feel “very confident” 14 percent feel “somewhat confident” and 7 percent feel “not confident”.

“Though still a majority of around 79 percent (very confident and confident response) remains positive towards the prospects of the new year, those who feel confident only outweighs those who feel very confident which is indicative of a fairly cautious optimism towards 2021,” said VTS president Bro. Clifford Sorita.

“The remaining 21 percent (somewhat confident and not confident response) brings to light a somewhat negative outlook towards the new year,” he added.

Sorita believed that the natural calamities and the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) that have happened this year made the respondents think less confident for the coming year.

“The experiences brought about by 2020 — our Taal Volcano eruption, Typhoons Ambo, Rolly, Siony and Ulysses plus this Covid-19 pandemic — has prompted our respondents to choose a somewhat cautious optimism towards 2021,” Sorita said. “Hopeful yet guarded and tempered. As this idiom would suggest it is a feeling of general confidence regarding the New Year and its possible outcome coupled with a sense of readiness for possible difficulties or disappointment.”