Survey: US, Japan receive ‘good’ trust rating from Filipinos

MANILA, Philippines — The United States and Japan received “good” net trust ratings among Filipinos, while China, Palestine, and Iran earned “poor” scores, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The SWS released the non-commissioned second quarter 2026 Social Weather Survey on Thursday evening, conducted among 1,200 Filipinos nationwide aged 18 and above from June 20 to 29.

Results found that the net trust for the United States remained “good” at +42, with 60 percent of Filipinos expressing “much trust”, while only 18 percent felt distrust. Meanwhile, Japan is at +36, receiving 55 percent of trust, while 19 percent “little trust”.

Article continues after this advertisement

“Net trust in the United States has been positive since SWS first surveyed it in December 1994, ranging from moderate +18 in May 2005 to excellent +82 in December 2013,” SWS stated.

The survey also showed that net trust for Australia stayed moderate with +29 percent (48% much trust, 20% little trust), “neutral” for Israel, with -5 (30% much trust, 34% little trust), and Russia, with -8 (28% much trust, 36% little trust).

Meanwhile, net trust for China stayed “poor” at -16, receiving only 25 percent of trust and 41 percent of “little trust” from Filipinos. Palestine remained at -19 (18% much trust, 37% little trust), while Iran at -23 (19% much trust, 43% little trust).

“Net trust in China has been positive in only 9 out of 74 surveys since SWS first surveyed it in August 1994. It reached as high as moderate +17 in June 2010 and as low as very bad -54 in June 2024,” it added.

The survey has sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. /mr