9.4M households rate themselves poor–SWS

Social Welfare Secretary Judy Taguiwalo said all government agencies “should take to heart” surveys that showed high poverty or hunger incidence.

Taguiwalo was reacting to the latest survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS) that found that four in every 10 Filipino families, equivalent to some 9.4 million households, rated themselves poor.

The 42-percent self-rated poverty incidence last month, nevertheless, was considered a “record” low since the 43 percent logged in March 2010.

The number of families rating themselves poor was lower than the 10.5 million families (45 percent) who considered themselves as such in June, according to SWS.

Conducted from Sept. 24 to 27, the survey used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adult respondents. It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points. Results of the survey were first published in BusinessWorld.

Food-poor

SWS also found that 6.7 million families (30 percent) considering themselves food-poor, down from 6.9 million (31 percent) in June.

Across areas, self-rated poverty ranged from 34 percent in Luzon outside Metro Manila to 56 percent in the Visayas, while self-rated food poverty ranged from 20 percent in Metro Manila to 41 percent in Mindanao.

The median self-rated poverty threshold, which is the monthly budget that would satisfy the poorer half of the poor households, declined in Metro Manila from P20,000 to P16,000, while it maintained its levels elsewhere (P15,000 in the rest of Luzon and P10,000 in the Visayas and Mindanao).

The median self-rated food-poverty threshold also declined in Metro Manila from P10,000 to P9,000, while it was unchanged in the other areas (P8,000 in the rest of Luzon and P5,000 in the Visayas and Mindanao).

Taguiwalao said the Department of Social Welfare and Development would expand its sustainable livelihood program  for the poor to complement the conditional cash grants under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).

She said the sustainable livelihood program would be open to all poor Filipinos and not just the 4.4 million households who receive monthly cash grants under the 4Ps.

The program involves training the poor to develop microenterprises and facilitating their access to job opportunities.

Taguiwalo said antipoverty efforts should also include implementing a “genuine” agrarian reform program, saying the largest percentage of the population are farmers. —REPORT FROM DONA Z. PAZZIBUGAN AND KATE PEDROSO, INQUIRER RESEARCH