SWS: More Pinoys count themselves as poor

A beggar starts his day outside Baclaran church in Parañaque City. —JOAN BONDOC

More Filipinos nationwide said they became poorer over the past three months, according to survey results released on Saturday that showed the biggest numbers who considered themselves poor were in Mindanao, the Visayas and Metro Manila.

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey said self-rated poverty among Filipino families worsened in the second quarter amid rising consumer prices, which raised the inflation to a five-year high in June.

Between March and June, the percentage of households who considered themselves poor rose from 42 percent, or an estimated 9.8 million families, to 48 percent, or an estimated 11.1 million families.

The survey, taken from June 27 to 30, also showed more Filipinos considered themselves food-poor, or people who believe they were eating poor man’s meals.

The number increased by  34 percent, or an estimated 7.8 million of Filipino families, up five points from 29 percent, or 6.7 million families in March.

5-year high inflation

Last month, inflation, which refers to the rate of increase in the prices of goods and services that consumers usually buy, hit a five-year high at 5.2 percent.

Inflation had risen steadily from 4.3 percent in March, to 4.5 percent in April and 4.6 percent in May.

SWS said the 6 percentage-point rise in nationwide self-rated poverty was due to sharp increases in Mindanao, Metro Manila and the Visayas.

Self-rated poverty climbed by 18 points from 42 percent to 60 percent in Mindanao.

It went up 13 points in both the Visayas (54 percent to 67 percent) and Metro Manila, (30 percent to 43 percent).

In Balance Luzon, self-rated poverty dropped five points from 40 percent to 35.

Those who rated themselves poor in terms of food rose in Mindanao (from 31 percent to 45 percent), Metro Manila (18 percent to 23 percent) and Balance Luzon (24 percent to 26 percent) while it was unchanged in the Visayas at 45 percent.

The survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents and had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

Thresholds

The median self-rated poverty threshold, which is the monthly budget that a poor household needs for home expenses in order not to consider itself poor in general, is P15,000; while the self-rated poverty gap, the amount poor families lack in monthly home expenses relative to their stated threshold, is P6,000.

The median self-rated food poverty threshold, which is the monthly food budget that food-poor households need in order not to consider their food poor, is P6,000; while the self-rated food poverty gap, the amount food-poor families lack in monthly expenses relative to their state threshold, is at P3,000.