Almost half, or 47 percent, of Filipinos surveyed in December by the Social Weather Station rated themselves poor, of which 32 percent rated themselves as food poor, meaning they suffered hunger and could not afford three meals a day because of high food prices.
Those that rated themselves as ‘borderline’ poor reached 33 percent, while 20 percent said they were “not poor.”
The survey found that 32 percent of respondents considered themselves food poor based on the food taken by their families, 41 percent rated themselves as food borderline and 26% said they were not food poor.
The annual average of food-poor families rose to 35 percent in 2023 or around 8.9 million families, higher than the 33 percent in 2022, with the highest incidents in MIndanao at 43 percent (from 51 percent in 2022) and Metro Manila at 24 percent (from 29 percent in 2022).
In balanced Luzon, the number of food-poor families rose to 27 percent (from 24 percent), but declined in the Visayas to 38 percent (from 39 percent).
The SWS survey covered 1,200 adults (300 each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Vsiayas and Mindanao) from December 8 to 11.
The SWS conducted the survey on 1,200 adults, 300 individuals each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, from December 8 to 11, 2023.
To recall, in December 2023, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan boasted about the decline in poverty during the first half of 2023, citing statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority, an agency under him.
The PSA report, released on December 22, estimated that 16.4 percent or 4.51 million Filipino families are below the poverty threshold of P13,797 per month, Rappler said explaining that poverty incidence is the proportion of poor Filipino individuals or families whose per capita income is insufficient to meet basic food and non-food needs.
This is lower than 2021 figures during the pandemic, when poverty incidence among families was registered at 18.1 percent.
There are 19.99 million Filipinos living below the poverty line. The government estimates that a family of five needs an additional P2,719 per month to move out of poverty.
In terms of population, the survey estimated that 22.4 percent or 25.24 million Filipinos are below poverty threshold, Rappler said.
But in the first semester 5.9 percent or about 1.62 million Filipino families were food poor, or whose income is below the monthly food threshold of P9,550 per month and can’t buy even the basic food needs to satisfy nutritional requirements for economic and social physical activities.
But Sonny Africa of think tank Ibon Foundation downplayed NEDA’s rosy report, saying the poverty seemed to have eased because the 2023 incident was compared to the period of economic lockdown.”
Africa said that to combat poverty, the government needs “to build the Filipino industries so needed to create more jobs and improve incomes,” Rappler quoted him as saying.
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