High prices drive Filipinos’ distrust of businesses, study finds

MANILA – High prices, unclear fees, and hidden charges are leading reasons Filipinos distrust businesses, according to the 2026 Philippine Trust Study, which gave Philippine business an overall trust score of 72.0 out of 100.

For households managing tight budgets, the findings highlight the importance of knowing what they are paying for and receiving the value promised, while challenging businesses to earn customer confidence through honest pricing, reliable products, and accountable service.

The study, developed by the EON Group with Ateneo de Manila University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Institute of Philippine Culture, introduced the first Philippine Business Trust Index, with none of the nine sectors examined reaching the Robust Trust category nationally.

Released under the theme “The Trust Economy: Tiwala ang Puhunan sa Gitna ng Pagsubok,” the findings describe public confidence in business as conditional.

The results come as headline inflation accelerated to 7.8% in October 2026 from 7.2% in September, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, adding pressure to household spending.

Among respondents who identified a least-trusted sector, 19.7% cited prices they considered too high or unreasonable, 14.7% pointed to unclear prices or fees, and 11.7% identified hidden charges.

Meanwhile, 18.6% cited value for money as a reason for trusting their most-trusted sector, underscoring the relationship between pricing, perceived value, and customer experience.

“Are customers staying because they trust a business, or because they have no other choice?” said Malyn Molina, EON Group president and chief operating officer.

“Businesses are part of the systems that keep our country moving, but being essential to people’s everyday lives does not make a business trustworthy. Filipinos should not have to keep absorbing the cost of poor value and unclear pricing. It is up to businesses to give people real reasons to choose them, and to keep choosing them,” Molina added.

The study examined 16 attributes of business trustworthiness, with honesty emerging as the leading priority after 34.6% of respondents ranked it first.

Product and service quality followed, along with competence, social or interpersonal trust, genuine care, and accountability and transparency.

Reputation ranked last among the 16 attributes, and only 6.8% cited it as a reason for trusting their most-trusted sector.

The researchers interpreted this as evidence that reputation alone does not establish trustworthiness, which depends on business conduct, the quality of products and services, and consistent relationships with stakeholders.

For consumers, the study’s message was the need for “resibo,” or proof that businesses deal honestly, fulfill their promises, and stand behind their offerings.

“The prominence of honesty in the findings is significant,” said Wilfred Luis Clamor, who holds a doctorate and is with Ateneo’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

“It tells us that Filipinos place great importance on whether businesses can be trusted to deal with them truthfully. But honesty is not judged in isolation. It is reinforced—or undermined—by the quality of products and services, the consistency of what businesses deliver, and how they treat the people affected by their decisions,” Clamor said.

Food and agriculture; health care and pharmaceuticals; and commerce, e-commerce, and retail formed the highest-scoring group, with each recording around 75.

The differences were too small to establish a meaningful ranking among those three sectors.

At the lower end, business process outsourcing and information and communications technology scored 68.6, matching tourism and travel, while real estate and construction recorded 67.7.

All three fell within the study’s Fragile Trust category.

The findings suggest that distrust cuts across industries and is associated with particular business behaviors, with pricing concerns leading the reasons respondents identified.

Financial technology, or fintech, scored 70.8, placing it near the boundary between the study’s 61-to-70 and 71-to-80 score bands.

The study linked confidence in an increasingly digital business environment to transparency, security, and consumer protection, alongside convenience and accessibility.

Company size offered little separation in reported confidence, with large enterprises scoring 72.3 and micro, small, and medium enterprises recording 71.7.

The study described the 0.6-point difference as within its margin of error and interpreted the results as showing comparable public confidence, although the release specified its margin of error for survey percentages rather than index-score differences.

Business representatives participating in focus group discussions also described practical benefits they associated with trust, including regulatory green lanes for companies with clean compliance records.

They cited cases in which license validity was extended from one year to three years.

Participants also said trusted brands could be better positioned to retain customers and maintain market share even when prices increase.

These were experiences and observations shared during discussions, rather than quantified outcomes established by the survey.

Workers emphasized fair treatment and management accountability, while regulators highlighted accurate reporting and compliance.

Their accounts pointed to the importance of consistency between organizational promises and actual conduct, including how companies treat employees and fulfill their obligations.

The study combined a nationally representative survey of 800 Filipino adults across 160 barangays in 84 cities and towns with focus group discussions involving 82 participants and key informant interviews with 18 business executives.

Researchers conducted face-to-face survey interviews, with a reported margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for percentages.

Fieldwork ran from May to August 2026, covering trust perceptions across business sectors, enterprise sizes, population groups, and stakeholder experiences.

Because the fieldwork preceded October, the findings should not be interpreted as measuring respondents’ reactions to that month’s inflation rate.

The research was descriptive and exploratory, meaning the survey reflected reported perceptions rather than independently verified assessments of business conduct, while the qualitative findings provided context from participating stakeholders.

EON began examining public trust in the Philippines in 2011, with earlier editions published as the Philippine Trust Index reporting the percentage of Filipinos who said they trusted particular institutions.

Those earlier measures differed from the index score introduced in 2026, which establishes a baseline for tracking business trust across nine major sectors.

The distinction also means the current score of 72.0 out of 100 should not be read as saying that 72% of Filipinos trust businesses.

“Tiwala ang puhunan,” Molina said. “That begins with katapatan: a business that keeps its promises and treats people the way it says it will. In a trust economy, businesses cannot afford to separate what they say from what they do.”