Hunger rises anew, hits 3.4M Pinoy families — SWS survey

After a decline for most of 2010, hunger is again on the rise, affecting some 3.4 million Filipino families, according to a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations. In its yearend-2010 survey, the SWS also said the number of households that consider themselves poor (mahirap) basically stayed the same. Some 18.1 percent of respondents, or an estimated 3.4 million families, claimed to have gone hungry in the last three months because they lacked anything to eat, the SWS said in its Nov. 27-30 survey, whose results were published Tuesday on BusinessWorld online, the pollster’s media partner.

It said this was up from the 2010 low of 15.9 percent (3.0 million families) recorded last September and – given the 21.2 percent in March and 21.1 percent in June – was slightly below the 19.1 percent average for the year. This was also four points over the 12-year average of 13.7 percent, but still far from the record high of 24 percent that hit in December 2009. The record low is the 7.4 percent in March 2004, the SWS said. Also, the SWS survey showed some 9.2 million families or 49 percent of the respondents considered themselves poor, barely changed from September’s 48 percent. Over a third or 36 percent, or an estimated 6.7 million households, considered themselves food-poor, down from 38 percent previously. The SWS said the rise in overall hunger was due to a two-point increase in moderate hunger, or that which is experienced "only once" or "a few times" in the last three months, to 15 percent or an estimated 2.8 million families. It said those who did not indicate frequency of their hunger are included in this category. Severe hunger – experienced "often" or "always," – remained at 3.1 percent or 588,000 families. Overall hunger rose in all areas except in the Visayas where it stayed at 15.3 percent. It increased by nearly four points in Balance Luzon [Luzon without Metro Manila] to 18.3 percent, almost two points in Mindanao to 18 percent and a point in Metro Manila to 21.7 percent. Moderate hunger was up in all geographical areas: to 16 percent from 13.3 percent in Mindanao, 14.7 percent from 12.3 percent in the Balance Luzon, to 17.7 percent from 15.7 percent in Metro Manila and to 12.7 percent from 11.7 percent in the Visayas. Severe hunger rose by over a point to 3.7 percent in Balance Luzon but fell by an identical amount in Mindanao (2.0 percent) and the Visayas (2.7 percent). It fell by nearly a point in Metro Manila to 4.0 percent, the SWS said. The pollster said the latest moderate and severe hunger scores are higher than their 12-year averages in all areas. Self-rated poverty Meanwhile, self-rated poverty [where respondents determine their poverty in reference to a standard scale] declined by nine points in Mindanao to 44 percent, by eight points in Visayas to 53 percent and by five points in Metro Manila to 44 percent. But it rose by 11 points in Balance Luzon to 51 percent. Self-rated poverty fell by a point in urban areas to 42 percent and was unchanged at 55 percent in rural areas. On the other hand, self-rated food poverty dropped 13 points in Metro Manila to 28 percent, by 11 points in the Visayas to 39 percent and by two points in Mindanao to 34 percent. It increased by six points to 38 percent in the rest of Luzon. The self-rated poverty threshold, or the monthly budget poor households say they need so as not to consider themselves poor in general, stayed sluggish despite considerable inflation. This was an indication of belt-tightening, the SWS said. As of November 2010 the median poverty thresholds for poor households were P15,000 in Metro Manila, P9,000 in the rest of Luzon, P8,000 in the Visayas and P5,000 in Mindanao. Meanwhile, the median food-poverty threshold hit a new high of P9,000 in Metro Manila, breaking the previous P8,000 record. It was at P4,000 for both the rest of Luzon and the Visayas, and at P3,000 in Mindanao. In Metro Manila, the SWS said the median poverty threshold of P15,000 was barely above the P10,000 in the year 2000, even though the Consumer Price Index (CPI) had risen by over 60 percent. The P15,000 is equivalent to only P9,096 in terms of the purchasing power in 2000 and is a throwback to living standards 15 years ago, the SWS added. It said households had tightened their budgets by P1,490, the difference between the Nov. 2010 median poverty threshold of P15,000 and the P16,490 equivalent – using the CPI of 164.9 – of the 2010 threshold. Metro Manila’s median food poverty threshold of P9,000, meanwhile, is equivalent to only P5,729 in terms of the 2000 purchasing power, the SWS said. Subtracting the first figure from the CPI-adjusted equivalent – P9,426 – of Dec. 2000’s P6,000 yields a belt-tightening of P426, the SWS said. For the survey, the SWS interviewed 1,200 adults nationwide. Error margins of three percent for national and six percent for area percentages applied to the survey. —LBG, GMANews.TV