FEAR

Filipinos have long since welcomed New Year as a new chance to improve their lives for themselves and for the nation.

But for many, the year 2026 only holds dread and fear for the future.

The reason: the ghosts of the massive pillaging of public funds still linger on a nation already reeling from the disasters of the past year.

Survey says

That more Filipinos have become pessimistic and dreadful of what the year 2026 may bring is evident by the recent survey results released by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The survey, conducted from November 24 to 30 (at the height of protests and mass action due to the flood-control controversy) showed that 89 percent of adult Filipinos will enter the New Year with hope rather than fear.

High enough? Actually, according to the SWS, it's not only one percent lower than the 90 percent reported in 2024, but the lowest ever since a similar percentage was reported in 2009.

To recall, 2009 was also a crucial year in our country's history due to supertyphoon "Ondoy," which then exposed the country's vulnerability to natural disasters – and how the government has failed spectacularly in its mandate to ensure Metro Manila's resilience against calamities.

The same SWS November survey showed that 11 percent of Filipinos will enter the New Year with fear, up by one point from 10 percent in 2024 – and, coincidentally, the highest since the same percentage was recorded in, wait for it, 2009.

History repeats itself, indeed – and as philosopher George Santanaya has once said, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Low confidence

That more and more Filipinos are convinced that 2026 will only end up worse is also an indication and confirmation of the public’s losing trust in government officials.

For President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr., 2025 might as well been an “annus horribilis” (year of horrors).

Another separate survey conducted by SWS along with Stratbase Consultancy last November 2025 saw the President’s ratings dip to 38 percent, down three points from 43 percent in September.

That essentially wiped out whatever gains the Marcos administration made in surveys conducted on January 2025, when his trust and approval ratings were at an all-time high of 50 percent.

In fact, notwithstanding the ten-percent jump on his ratings from May to June 2025, the data shows a 12-percent net drop in his approval rating from the 64 percent reported in July 2024.

A month-by-month analysis also showed the President's trust and approval rating gradually going down to its lowest at 36 percent by April 2025, one month before the May 12 midterm elections which saw the defeat of several key members of the administration's "Bagong Alyansa" senatorial slate.

Take note, too, that these survey results were taken before the series of natural calamities in July, which in turn exposed the billions of pesos lost in anomalous flood-control projects and the gargantuan extent of graft and corruption in the Philippines.

Lower and lower

The events of last December, including the resignations of key members of the Independent Committee on Infrastructure (ICI), the questionable death of a key official of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the revelation of her files detailing even more billions funneled to suspicious infrastructure projects are set to tarnish President Marcos’ reputation even further, according to political analysts.

This could very well turn Marcos into a lame duck, unable to control the direction of his administration, as the country’s ruling political forces battle for survival.

“We do not believe the President can recover from this low point in his approval and trust ratings, no matter what his administration does to placate the rising public anger and frustration,” a local political analyst who requested anonymity told OpinYon Laguna.

Force to reckon

And the biggest beneficiary of that would be Vice President Sara Duterte, whose approval ratings actually went up to 56 percent last November, according to that same SWS-Stratbase survey.

“We will not be surprised if the Vice President actually becomes the ruler of a caretaker government in 2026, or if Marcos administration manages to finish its term in 2028, become a very real frontrunner in that year’s elections,” that same political analyst argued.

“Remember, Sara Duterte’s already a political force that has been reckoned in 2022, if not for the fateful decision to ally her camp with the Marcoses which was allegedly engineered by some members of the Marcos clique.”

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