Most Filipinos found it difficult to buy food and spend on health expenses and children’s schooling in the past three months, according to a survey by an independent research think tank.
IBON Foundation Inc. said more than half or 53.3 percent of respondents said they had difficulty in meeting their food expenses, while 44.1 percent answered otherwise.
More respondents also said they had difficulty in meeting schooling (40.5 percent) and health treatment expenses (48.4 percent) than those who did not.
Only 19 percent said they did not have difficulty in paying for their children’s education, while 22.7 percent said buying medicines was not difficult for them.
The IBON survey, conducted from Sept. 1 to 12, employed field interviews of 1,505 respondents and a multi-stage probability sampling scheme with a plus or minus three percent margin of error.
According to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, about 9.4 million Filipinos or 42 percent of the population consider themselves poor. CDG/rga
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