NEARLY nine out of 10 Filipinos said the 1987 Constitution must not be amended, with 75 percent of them saying it should not be amended now or at any other time, the latest survey conducted by Pulse Asia showed.
In the “Ulat sa Bayan” survey conducted from March 6-10, 2024, 88 percent said they did not want the current constitution to be amended now, and 75 percent of them said it should never be amended.
Meanwhile, 14 percent said that while the Constitution could not be amended, it could be amended sometime in the future. Of these, 6 percent said the Charter could be amended during the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., while 8 percent said that it could be done in the next administration.
Only 8 percent of respondents said they were in favor of amending the Constitution.
Pulse Asia President Ronald Holmes said those opposing the moves to change the 1987 Constitution increased between March 2023 and March 2024, with a 43 percent increase in opposition nationwide and ranging from 31 percent to 58 percent per area.
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He added that support for the proposals to amend the Constitution had eased in the Philippines with a 33 percent decline from March last year.
A majority of respondents opposed allowing foreigners to exploit natural resources (86 percent) and to own residential and industrial lands (81 percent).
Some 78 percent said they opposed the removal of the limits on stocks in Philippine corporations that foreign individuals and corporations could own, while 74 percent said they wanted a shift from a bicameral to a unicameral system of government.
About 71 percent of respondents opposed shifting the political system from presidential to parliamentary, changing the present unitary system of government to a federal one, limiting the prohibition of foreign ownership on communications, and allowing foreigners to own equity in mass media and advertising.
Only 7 percent of respondents nationwide said that they were given the people’s initiative petition to amend the 1987 Constitution, of which 76 percent said that they did not sign the petition and 24 percent said that they signed.
Of those who signed the petition, however, 55 percent said they were not given an incentive after signing it, while 45 percent said they received an incentive.
Reacting to the survey, ACT-Teachers Rep. France Castro said the survey results proved that nearly all Filipinos did not want Charter change and that the government should focus on other “pressing problems.”
Kabataan Party-list Rep. Raoul Manuel, on the other hand, said the earlier survey by Tangere noted that 52 percent of respondents were in favor of Charter change.
“This proves that not all surveys are created equal. The methodology used by a survey that used a mobile app to gather its responses from respondents is questionable,” Manuel said.
The Pulse Asia survey had 1,200 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent.
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