The poll results, presented by Greenpeace in a press conference in Quezon City, was conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) during the last quarter of 2007.
"Greenpeace believes the poll should jolt the government into taking more aggressive action to combat the growing threats to the country's water resources and to the environment in general. The fact that majority of Filipinos nationwide perceive the government to be almost inutile in protecting their health and the environment, is a stinging indictment of the government's overall performance in this department. Only eight percent of Filipinos think that environment laws are almost always enforced. That's a pathetic statistic for a government trying hard to project itself as pro-environment," said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Toxics Campaigner Beau Baconguis.
Results of the poll reveal that 72% of Filipinos believe that the dangers of water pollution to human health, as well as to the environment, are serious, with half of the total respondents saying it is 'very serious,' and 22% saying it is 'somewhat serious.'
Meanwhile 69% of Filipinos nationwide think environmental laws are, at best, only occasionally enforced: 29% said these laws were only 'occasionally enforced,' while a plurality of 40% said the laws were merely 'rarely enforced.'
However, Greenpeace believes that Filipinos should abandon the dangerous misconception that pollution is an unavoidable consequence of economic development, warning that this notion is itself responsible for the grave environmental threats now confronting the nation, and which have begun to seriously undermine the people's aspirations for health, clean livelihoods and lasting economic progress.
The poll asked respondents their opinion on the statement "pollution is an acceptable trade-off for economic development." Only 42% disagree with the statement. Thirty-six percent of those asked agree (36%), while 20% are undecided.
"We cannot as a nation believe that pollution is an acceptable trade-off for economic development and expect progress that is just and lasting," said Baconguis. "Profiting from environmental destruction is the wrong path to development. The government must be the first to prevent such a thing from happening, beginning with the effective enforcement of environmental laws."
Greenpeace believes this is also a challenge for the newly-established environmental courts. The speedy resolution of cases of environmental abuse and destruction will be one indication that the government is serious about protecting the environment.
The SWS survey was conducted from November 30 to December 3, 2007 using face to face interviews of 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao (sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages and ±6% for area percentages). The area estimates were weighted by the National Statistics Office medium-population projections for 2007 to obtain the national estimates. The survey questions discussed above were commissioned by Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
