The seventh question that we asked garnered a unanimous answer from the 63 respondents. The question is, "Do you think having the ownership of Scarborough will benefit the Philippines? Or will it cause more conflict to the state?” For the 63 individuals, it will benefit the Philippines. Though some respondents have a small doubt that it could elevate China's aggression and could cause war, they still belief that it is beneficiary to us. A small number of the respondents have a 30-70 ratio on their thought, 30 being the thought that it could cause more conflict, and 70 being the thought that it will be an advantage to our country.
For our 8th and 9th question, we received different responses. (Refer to chart 3 for tally of response) For the question concerning the efforts of the government to resolve the dispute as waste of money, majority of the respondents (47 out of 63) disagreed and states that the money spent is definitely worth it. According to one of our foreign respondents, as a developing country, Philippines is in need of oil supply that could contribute to projects in the future. She also suggests that the abundant supply of oil that we can extract from the Scarborough Shoal could profit a big fortune, so the money spent will be easily recovered. However, 6 of our respondents believe that the government is wasting money on resolving this issue. In their defense, they believe that the Philippines is experiencing more serious and fatal problems like corruption and poverty, so the government should not fully focus in the Scarborough issue. The remaining 10 of our 63 respondents are still undecided about the question. Most of them said that it depends on how the dispute will end. If the Scarborough Shoal ended up being a Chinese Territory, then the money spent is definitely a waste. But if we ended up gaining rights to claim the shoal, then the money spent is definitely worth it. According to the undecided ones, only until the claim for the Scarborough is given to one country, we can identify if we wasted a stockpile of money enough to aid puberty and increase our education’s quality, or if we rightfully invested on a natural resource that will benefit out country, not just for this moment, but on the future generation of Filipino.
On the question, "Do you think President Benigno Aquino III should mainly focus on solving the territorial dispute?” majority of the respondents answered yes, (48 out of 63 respondents). Again, the reason why most think our president should focus on finding resolutions is the inescapable fact that Philippines is a Third World country, and we are in need of any natural resources that we could possibly acquire. Without any doubt, the rich marine biodiversity and the plentiful supply of oil that can be extracted from the shoal will definitely boostthe state's economic stability, fishery industries, and even our power supply. But despite the benefits Scarborough Shoal is offering to our country, some still said that our president shouldn't focus on solving the issue for the same reason that they believe our country is suffering more severe problems like poverty and corruption, which must be given more focus on finding resolutions than the Scarborough issue. 3 respondents, on the other hand, are having a split decision at the moment we interviewed/asked them to fill out our questionnaire.
As we bring our interviews and handing our questionnaires to an end, we asked a concluding question to our respondents for their personal recommendations, remarks and suggestions to the government, in relation to the Scarborough Issue. Most of the recommendation that we've heard suggests the government to resolve the tension through peaceful resolutions like signing of treaties, and more frequent visits of Pres. Aquino to China to negotiate the issue. There are also those who insisted for the government to resolve the issue immediately to reduce the risk of war in the future, where Philippines will definitely be the underdog. One of the respondents bravely suggests initiating a war against China, because United States will back us up anyway, but still majority of the respondents doesn't support the government on certain proposed aggressive actions like blacklisting of China, boycotting Chinese products, and involving ourselves in a war.
Seeking for individuals who are willing to answer our questions genuinely is really hard, and requires a lot of patience. But in the end, the effort is definitely worth it for we, the researchers, were able to accumulate new ideas, resolutions, and views. We were able to get in touch with the public, both foreign and domestic, and learn more about their thoughts regarding the continuous heating up of the tension between China and Philippines with regard to the our selected issue, The Scarborough Shoal territorial tension. Their response is highly appreciated and valued by the researchers as they will come very useful on studying the case and producing an informative website.
On the question, "Do you think President Benigno Aquino III should mainly focus on solving the territorial dispute?” majority of the respondents answered yes, (48 out of 63 respondents). Again, the reason why most think our president should focus on finding resolutions is the inescapable fact that Philippines is a Third World country, and we are in need of any natural resources that we could possibly acquire. Without any doubt, the rich marine biodiversity and the plentiful supply of oil that can be extracted from the shoal will definitely boostthe state's economic stability, fishery industries, and even our power supply. But despite the benefits Scarborough Shoal is offering to our country, some still said that our president shouldn't focus on solving the issue for the same reason that they believe our country is suffering more severe problems like poverty and corruption, which must be given more focus on finding resolutions than the Scarborough issue. 3 respondents, on the other hand, are having a split decision at the moment we interviewed/asked them to fill out our questionnaire.
As we bring our interviews and handing our questionnaires to an end, we asked a concluding question to our respondents for their personal recommendations, remarks and suggestions to the government, in relation to the Scarborough Issue. Most of the recommendation that we've heard suggests the government to resolve the tension through peaceful resolutions like signing of treaties, and more frequent visits of Pres. Aquino to China to negotiate the issue. There are also those who insisted for the government to resolve the issue immediately to reduce the risk of war in the future, where Philippines will definitely be the underdog. One of the respondents bravely suggests initiating a war against China, because United States will back us up anyway, but still majority of the respondents doesn't support the government on certain proposed aggressive actions like blacklisting of China, boycotting Chinese products, and involving ourselves in a war.
Seeking for individuals who are willing to answer our questions genuinely is really hard, and requires a lot of patience. But in the end, the effort is definitely worth it for we, the researchers, were able to accumulate new ideas, resolutions, and views. We were able to get in touch with the public, both foreign and domestic, and learn more about their thoughts regarding the continuous heating up of the tension between China and Philippines with regard to the our selected issue, The Scarborough Shoal territorial tension. Their response is highly appreciated and valued by the researchers as they will come very useful on studying the case and producing an informative website.