MANILA, Philippines — More Filipinos went hungry in the last three months, with rates nearly doubling in the Visayas and Mindanao regions, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll done last September.
The survey found 22.9 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger — 5.3 points higher than the previous poll last June and the highest since the 30.7 percent figure in September 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
READ: SWS survey: More Filipinos went hungry in last 3 months
The pollster defines “involuntary hunger” as “without having anything to eat.”
Of the 22.9 percent nationwide, 16.8 percent said they went through “moderate hunger” while 6.1 percent said they experienced “severe hunger.”
SWS attributed the surge to the sharp increases in the Visayas from 13.7 percent in June to 26.0 percent in September and in Mindanao from 15.7 percent in June to 30.7 percent in September.
Meanwhile, hunger in Metro Manila rose slightly from 20.0 percent in June to 21.7 percent in September. However, hunger in the rest of Luzon dropped from 19.6 percent in June to 18.1 percent in September.
SWS conducted the survey using face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults nationwide from September 14 to 23, with a margin of plus or minus 2.5 percent in sampling error.
Last October 9, the polling body found in another survey that 46 percent of Filipinos described themselves as “food-poor” with 17 percent as “food borderline.”