Self-rated poverty at record low; hunger at all-time peak

The number of Filipino families who feel poor has fallen to a level last seen 23 years ago, but hunger remains near the record high, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said, tracing the dichotomy to significant belt-tightening. "The reason why self-rated poverty is relatively low and at the same time hunger is relatively high is because living standards have dropped so low that many families do not rate themselves as poor even if they suffered from hunger recently," the SWS said in a report on its March 19-22 poll, the results of which were made exclusive to BusinessWorld. University of the Philippines economist Benjamin E. Diokno said the record low self-rated poverty was deceptive since it does not highlight Filipinos’ belt-tightening. "There may be a hint of deceptiveness in that statistics. Filipinos have had to tighten their belts so much, such that they lowered their poverty threshold," he told dzXL radio in Filipino on Monday. Poor families Diokno, who served as Budget secretary under former President Joseph Estrada, said Filipino families have yet to recover from the economic crisis of 2008. At the time, he said, prices of basic goods and fuel had risen. He also said the hunger situation had worsened, with more children born to poor families. "Our population continues to grow, but more children are born to poor families and fewer children are born to wealthy ones. This has worsened our situation in terms of poverty and hunger," Diokno said. The survey found 43 percent or about 8.1 million families rating themselves as mahirap (poor), matching the record low set in March 1987. At the same time, 21.2 percent or some four million households said they experienced having nothing to eat in the last three months, down from December 2009’s record of 24 percent. The hunger figure, the SWS said, "is still far above the 1998 to 2010 average of 13.4 percent." A new record low was also hit in terms of self-rated food poverty — 31 percent (about 5.9 million families) put themselves in this category, erasing the previous mark of 35 percent hit in June 2004. Malacañang claimed credit for the results, with deputy presidential spokesman Gary B. Olivar saying in a text message yesterday: "The improvement in self-rated poverty, unprecedented since the Marcos era, as well as in hunger incidence, is evidence that the spike we saw last year was actually recession-related." "Now that the crisis is subsiding, people are starting to feel the benefits of recovery, as well as the sustained economic growth together with the... massive social spending under the President. This is a closing legacy which the next leadership can continue to build upon if they so choose," he added. Belt-tightening Of the some four million families who said they had experienced hunger, only 2.6 million considered themselves poor, the SWS said, even as it pointed out that sluggish poverty and food poverty thresholds despite rising consumer prices meant continued belt-tightening. The overall decline in hunger was traced to drops in both moderate hunger by a point and severe hunger by two points. Moderate hunger, pertaining to those who said they had experienced it "only once" or "a few times," dipped to 18.4 percent (about 3.4 million families) from 19.3 percent (3.6 million families). Included here were those who did not state their frequency of hunger. Severe hunger (experiencing it "often" or "always") fell to 2.8 percent (533,000 families) from 4.7 percent (870,000). By geographic location, overall hunger slid by almost 10 points in Metro Manila to 17.3 percent (432,000 families) from 27 percent (665,000 families). It also went down by almost seven points in the Visayas to 21.2 percent (800,000 families) from 27.9 percent (one million families). It was hardly changed in Mindanao at 24 percent (one million families) from 24.5 percent, and in the Balance of Luzon (outside Metro Manila) to 20.9 percent (1.7 million families) from 21.2 percent. Moderate hunger, meanwhile, was down by over six points in Metro Manila to 13.3 percent, and by almost three points in the Visayas to 18.8 percent. It was almost unchanged in the rest of Luzon (18.1 percent) and in Mindanao (21.4 percent). The new moderate hunger rates were higher than their averages for all areas in the last 11 years, the SWS said. Severe hunger, meanwhile, fell by over four points in the Visayas to 2.3 percent, by three points in Metro Manila to 4 percent, and by a point in the Balance of Luzon to 2.8 percent. It dropped marginally in Mindanao to 2.6 percent. The SWS said the new severe hunger rates were lower than their 11-year averages for all areas except in Metro Manila. Meanwhile, self-rated poverty dropped partly due to a 16-point fall in Mindanao to 39 percent, a new record. It remained at 38 percent in Metro Manila and 43 percent in the rest of Luzon, while it went up by two points in the Visayas to 52 percent. It fell by 13 points in rural areas to a new record low of 45 percent, while urban areas posted a three-point rise to 41 percent. Self-rated food poverty went down by 16 points in Mindanao to 32 percent, a point shy of the record low. It was down by seven points in the rest of Luzon to 29 percent, and by two points each in the Visayas and Metro Manila to 39 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Monthly budget The SWS also noted that the poverty and food-poverty thresholds — the monthly budget households need in order not to consider themselves poor — had stayed sluggish despite inflation. The March 2010 median poverty threshold of P12,000 in Metro Manila, for example, was said to be "barely above" the P10,000 10 years earlier, even if the consumer price index had risen by more than 60 percent in the same period. The P10,000 in 2000 is equivalent to P16,240 per month based on the March 2010 cost of living, the SWS said. Subtracting the current P12,000 from this results in P4,240, which the SWS said measures the extent of belt-tightening that had taken place. For food poverty, the belt-tightening by Metro Manila’s food-poor households was lower at P3,252, it said. The SWS interviewed 2,100 registered voters, divided into random samples of 300 in Metro Manila and 600 each in the rest of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao, for the latest survey. The sampling error margins were ±2.2 percent for national percentages, ±6 percent for Metro Manila, and ±4 percent for the other regions. — Gerard S. dela Peña, BusinessWorld/NPA, GMANews.TV