Nearly two out of every three adults in Metro Manila believe there is nothing someone like them can do to curb corruption in government, the highest proportion among the country’s four major areas in the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll.
The capital’s 64 percent figure was well above the national result of 52 percent. Respondents were asked whether they agreed with the statement: “a person like me cannot do anything to reduce corruption in the government.” Thirty percent disagreed, while 17 percent could not decide either way.
SWS interviewed 1,200 adults nationwide from June 20 to 29, 2026. National figures carry a sampling error margin of plus or minus three percentage points.
The pollster measures the result through a net disagreement score, taking the share who reject the statement and subtracting the share who accept it. The June reading came out at -22, a single point off the -23 posted in March, when 51 percent agreed and 29 percent disagreed. Both 2026 readings are the weakest SWS has recorded on the question.
The March round marked the first time the item appeared in a national SWS survey since December 2009. Filipinos were evenly divided at that time, with 41 percent agreeing they were powerless against corruption and an identical 41 percent disagreeing.
A differently worded question in 2012 drew a gloomier response. Sixty percent of respondents that year agreed that “it is too difficult for someone like me to fight corruption in the government,” against 19 percent who disagreed and 20 percent who were undecided.
Outside the capital, the sense of helplessness reached 55 percent in the rest of Luzon and 47 percent in Mindanao. The Visayas had the smallest share of respondents who felt they could not make a difference, at 42 percent.
