MANILA: Some 8.5 million Filipino families see themselves as “food-poor,” a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed yesterday.
The survey, conducted from June 28-30, showed that while fewer families consider themselves as “mahirap” or poor (49 percent of the 1,200 respondents), more households regard themselves “food-poor.”
Based on the survey results, 40 percent or some 8.5 million families said they experienced food poverty, a figure slightly higher from the 39 percent (7.9 million households) recorded in the previous quarter.
Balance Luzon posted the highest increase in self-rated food poverty, from 36 percent in March to 42 percent in June.
While self-rated food-poverty in Metro Manila decreased by just a notch to 27 percent in June, it dropped by four points to 39 percent in Mindanao and to 44 percent in Visayas.
Meanwhile, self-rated poverty fell the most in Visayas, from 65 percent in March to 57 percent in June.
It also dropped in Mindanao (47 percent) in June, Metro Manila (40 percent) and Balance Luzon (48 percent).
The recent SWS survey employed face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide. It has an error margin of ±3 percent for national and ±6 percent for area percentages. The Philippine star
