Filipinos do not trust the news. Are they sick of divisive politics?

Filipinos are losing faith in the news faster than audiences elsewhere, as analysts attribute the decline in confidence to years of attacks on the Philippine media industry and the growing reach of influence operations on social media.

Only 28 per cent of Filipinos said they trusted news most of the time, down from 38 per cent in 2025, according to the latest survey by the Reuters Institute Digital News Report, the steepest decline among respondents across 48 markets.

The figure placed the Philippines below the global average of 37 per cent, and is at its lowest level since the survey began in 2015. In comparison, the global average was at 40 per cent last year.

Social media remained the top source of news for Filipinos, with 72 per cent saying that they relied on Facebook for their news. About 51 per cent said they sometimes or often avoided the news.

The report also pointed to developments such as political instability, divisive elections and a “noisier and more fragmented information environment” as characteristics of countries in which trust in news had fallen the most, including Thailand, Peru, Poland, the Philippines and Ireland.

Sustained attacks on journalists and news outlets had “a cumulative effect of undermining confidence in journalism overall”, the report said.

“Looking at the five countries where trust in news fell the most this year, the reductions in overall trust are much larger than the change in trust ratings for any individual news brand,” it wrote.