With tensions over territories rising over the march of globalization, the world has become, unfortunately, far too familiar with disputes over supposedly owned territory. Two recent examples of these disputes sit on the far ends of the spectrum. On the other hand, the West Philippine Sea narrates the tense back and forth between the naval fleets of China and the Philippines. On the more extreme end of this spectrum lies the war between the country of Israel and the Islamic Resistance Movement, more commonly known as the terrorist group Hamas. Capstone-Intel Corporation looks into the general sentiment of Filipinos with regard to these two topics.
Capstone-Intel is a high-impact research company that uses innovative research technologies, tools, and methods to convert data and information into breakthrough insights and actionable intelligence outputs. It is committed to helping its clients solve problems, find solutions, grow markets and constituencies, build reputations, navigate risks, manage crises, and be the country’s leading private research and intelligence agency.
For the issue of the West Philippine Sea, the consolidated consensus across various social media posts is generally negative. About 75 percent of the total mentions online have been identified by Capstone-Intel’s social media listening tool as negatively leaning.
This tool scanned through social media from September 23 to October 23 of this year, and the general sentiment remained the same despite the issue being first discussed in 2012.
In a recent statement, Capstone-Intel reiterates its call for a more assertive response in the defense of the country’s territory in its quote found here. It goes on to remind the national government about the dangers of intimidation from the opposing country, as well as emphasizing the importance of holding on to the decision released by the Permanent Court of Arbitration drafted in the Hague back in 2016.
On the other hand, Capstone-Intel also released a parallel social listening report regarding the war between Israel and Hamas. The top stories that revolved around this topic garnered 90 percent in terms of negative mentions across social and non-social platforms.
The report also mentioned that the majority of the stories with the highest engagement scores are ones that narrate the concerns of Filipinos with regard to the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) still currently residing in the area amid the conflict.
The example cited in the report was from TV Patrol, which garnered an engagement score of 9,366.2. Another report by the same source had—at the time of the scanning—received an engagement score of 6,046.8. The third-highest engagement score of 2,131.9 comes from ABS-CBN news. All three stories involved Filipinos struggling during the current conflict.
The data for both sentiment analyses shows that Filipinos maintain an overall disdain in terms of conflict that involve their fellow Filipinos. In both issues, the main focus would be on their countrymen, whether that would be for maintaining the country’s territories or ensuring the safety of the OFWs.
