CLOSE to four of 10 Filipino families or around 10.6 million families consider themselves as food-poor, the March 26-29 survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
The survey, which involved 1,200 adult respondents nationwide with a margin of error of ±2.8 percent, said 39 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as food-poor, which is slightly higher than the 35 percent (estimated 8.7 million families) in December 2022.
SWS said 35 percent (down from 38 percent) rated themselves as borderline food-poor or within the line between being food-poor and not food-poor, while 26 percent (down from 28 percent) rated their families as not food-poor.
The polling firm said the 5-point rise in Self-Rated Food-Poor percentage was due to increases in all areas, led by Mindanao (52 percent from 45 percent) and the Visayas (45 percent from 38 percent), followed by Metro Manila (33 percent from 29 percent) and Luzon (31 percent from 28 percent.
SWS said of those who said they were not food-poor, the highest were from Metro Manila with 43 percent (38 percent), followed by those from Luzon with 33 percent (from 36 percent), the Visayas with 18 percent (from 20 percent) and Mindanao with 9 percent (from 14 percent).
Most of the respondents who claimed to be borderline poor were from Mindanao (40 percent from 41 percent), the Visayas (37 percent from 42 percent), Luzon (36 percent, unchanged), and Metro Manila (24 percent from 33 percent).
SWS said the national median Self-Rated Food Poverty Threshold (SRFP Threshold), or amount of money that you need to spend in order not to be considered food poor, rose to P8,000 per month from P7,000.
The national median Self-Rated Food Poverty Gap (SRFP Gap), or the amount that a family lacks or still needs to reach the SRFP threshold, stayed at P3,000.
In Metro Manila, the median SRFP Threshold rose to P10,000 from P9,000 while the SRFP Gap was at P5,000 (from P4,000).
In Luzon, both the median SRFP Threshold and Gap rose to P9,000 (from P8,000), and to P4,000 (from P3,000), respectively.
SWS said in the Visayas, the SRFP Threshold fell to P8,000 (from P9,000) while the median Gap stayed at P3,000; while in Mindanao, the median SRFP Threshold rose to P6,000 from P5,000, while the median SRFP Gap rose to P3,000 from P2,000.
As this developed, National Economic and Development Authority chief and Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said more people tend to rate themselves and their families as “poor” whenever the inflation rate is high as reflected in the March SWS survey that showed that 51 percent consider their families as poor.
“That is why we have been working hard to address the issues contributing to the price elevation in recent months,” he said.
Balisacan said Philippine Statistics Authority data had shown that the administration has “succeeded in reducing overall inflation in the past three months,” as well as in improving the labor market conditions.
“We have, however, much more work to do as the government targets inflation to return to low levels of 2 to 4 percent by the end of the year,” he added.
The SWS on Sunday released its survey results that said that 51 percent or around 14 million families consider themselves as poor while 30 percent said their families as borderline poor and 19 percent said they are not poor.
