Hunger down in March but self-rated poverty up, says survey

HOW CAN? Less are hungry but more are poor, according to the SWS survey from June 27 to 30. Here, children eat bread distributed during a feeding program of the World Mission Community Care at Baseco Compound in Tondo, Manila. The SWS survey has found that 3.6 million families have experienced going hungry in the past three months. RICHARD A. REYES

MANILA, Philippines–The number of Filipino families that experienced hunger in the second quarter declined by an estimated 300,000 households from the previous quarter, despite more of them rating themselves as poor, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The survey, conducted from June 27 to 30, found 16.3 percent of the respondents, or about 3.6 million families, saying that they experienced hunger in the last three months, down from 17.8 percent, or 3.9 million families, in March.

The June figure is also below the 19.5 percent annual average in 2013, SWS said.

Contradiction 

The latest hunger survey came after the SWS self-rated poverty report was released last Monday, the day of President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address. It found 55 percent (12.1 million families) saying they considered themselves poor in June, from 53 percent in March (11.5 million), while 41 percent (9 million families) said they consider themselves food-poor from 39 percent in March (8.5 million families).

Victor Abola, an economics professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific, explained the seeming contradiction. He said the hunger survey is more objective or could be quickly answered by yes or no, while the poverty survey is more about perception or the feeling of being poor or not poor.

“I believe more the hunger figures,” he said in a phone interview.

He also noted that the two-point increase in the poverty figures falls within the survey’s margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Self-rated food poor 

SWS classified moderate hunger as experiencing hunger “only once” or “a few times,” while going hungry “often” or “always” as experiencing severe hunger.

Those who said they experienced “moderate hunger” decreased from 15 percent in March to 13.5 percent in June while those who said they experienced severe hunger remained at 2.8 percent.

“At any point in time, hunger among the self-rated food poor is always greater than hunger among the self-rated poor,” the SWS said.

The SWS survey, which was first published in BusinessWorld, used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adult respondents and a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for national percentage. Ana Roa, Inquirer Research