7 out of 10 Pinoys agree gov't must assert rights over West Philippine Sea islands —SWS

Seven out of 10 Filipinos believe the Philippine government must assert its rights over the disputed islands in the West Philippine Sea as backed by the 2016 ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, according to a recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) national mobile phone survey.

The July 2020 poll, sponsored by the Stratbase Albert Del Rosario Institute, showed that 45% of those who said so have strongly agreed while 15% somewhat agreed.

Meanwhile, 13% disagreed and 15% were undecided.

The net agreement score was highest in Metro Manila (+65), followed by the Visayas (+59), Balance Luzon (+57), and Mindanao (+52).

Though the net agreement score nationwide was tagged "extremely strong" at +57, a significant decrease was observed compared to +82 score in June 2019.

Further, 82% of the respondents agreed that the Philippines must  form alliances with other democratic countries which could help in defending its territorial rights in the West Philippine Sea. This score is lower by 2% compared to June last year.

On the other hand, 9% disagreed while 8% were undecided on the issue.

The survey was conducted from July 3 to 6, among 1,555 adult Filipinos nationwide.  It has sampling error margins of ±2% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, and ±5 for Balance Luzon, ±5% for Visayas, and ±5% for Mindanao.

On Sunday, the Philippines urged China to comply with the 2016 arbitral ruling which invalidated its massive claim over the resource-rich South China Sea.

But China called the four-year-old decision "illegal and invalid.”

The United States, on the other hand, expressed solidarity with Southeast Asian nations who are involved with territorial disputes with the Asian superpower.

"If you bring the people into the picture, you know where the Philippines stands," SWS president Mahar Mangahas said at a Stratbase ADRI virtual conference on Tuesday. 

He said that Chinese people would also reject their country's claims if they knew the "true history" as shown in the 2016 arbitral ruling. The "missing element," he said, is the opinion of the Chinese themselves.

"Here I believe that if the Chinese people could also freely receive this information about the situation, that they would also reject it and not support the bullying of China in the West Philippine Sea," Mangahas said.—AOL, GMA News