SWS SURVEY: Over 9M Filipino families see selves as poor

MANILA, Philippines — More than nine million Filipino families consider themselves poor, while nearly two in five say they are “food poor,” according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The Second Quarter of 2009 survey, conducted from June 19 to 22 and released on Tuesday, said 50 percent of the household heads interviewed, representative of about 9.3 million families, considered themselves poor.

This is three points higher than the 47 percent (some 8.7 million families) recorded in a February survey.

Both self-rated poverty and self-rated food poverty rose sharply in Mindanao from the figures posted in the last quarter, the survey also found.

In terms of self-rated poverty, 27 percent placed themselves on the borderline, while 22 percent said they were not poor.

In terms of self-rated food poverty, 39 percent of families (some 7.2 million) said they were food poor, while 33 percent put themselves on the food borderline and 28 percent considered themselves not food poor.

In March 2001, at the start of the Arroyo administration, 49 percent rated themselves food poor, according to SWS.

The highest self-rated poverty figure posted in the last eight years was recorded in November 2003, when 58 percent said they were food poor.

“Self-Rated Food Poverty has been volatile at 49 percent in June 2008, 38 percent in September 2008, 42 percent in December 2008, 36 percent in February 2009 and 39 percent in June 2009,” SWS said.

In Mindanao, self-rated poverty rose sharply by 17 points, from 45 percent in February to 62 percent in June.

It rose by two points in Luzon outside Metro Manila, from 42 percent to 44 percent. It declined by seven points in Metro Manila, from 49 percent to 42 percent, and by four points in the Visayas, from 60 percent to 56 percent.

Self-rated poverty in urban areas rose slightly from 43 percent to 44 percent, while it rose by five points in rural areas, from 53 percent to 58 percent.

The rise in self-rated food poverty was also highest in Mindanao. It rose by 11 points, from 36 percent in February to 47 percent in June.

In Luzon outside of Metro Manila, self-rated food poverty rose from 31 percent to 35 percent. It declined by seven points in Metro Manila, from 39 percent to 32 percent, and by three points in the Visayas, from 45 percent to 42 percent.

The polling outfit said the self-rated poverty threshold, or the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in general, had been “sluggish” for several years despite inflation, an indication of “belt tightening” among poor families.

As of June, the median poverty threshold for poor households in Metro Manila stayed at P10,000, even though it had already risen to as high as P15,000 several times in the past, SWS said.

For those in Mindanao, the median poverty threshold stayed at P5,000, though it had reached the P10,000 threshold in the past.

The median poverty threshold of poor households rose slightly to P8,000 in the Visayas, while it fell to P6,000 in Luzon outside Metro Manila, though both areas had touched P10,000 in the past.

Considering inflation, Metro Manila’s median poverty threshold of P10,000 for June was equivalent to only P6,378 in base year 2000 purchasing power, SWS estimated.

“The deflated poverty threshold for NCR [National Capital Region] of below P7,000 per month is a throwback to living standards of over 20 years ago,” SWS said.

SWS said that in its four surveys conducted in 2000, the median poverty threshold for Metro Manila was already P10,000 per month, equivalent to P15,680 per month at the June 2009 cost of living.

“On the other hand, the median food poverty threshold of P5,000 in Metro Manila is equivalent to only P3,292 in base year 2000 purchasing power for food,” SWS said.

The polling firm noted that the median food poverty threshold in December 2000 was P6,000 for Metro Manila, equivalent to P9,114 per month at the June 2009 cost of food.

The difference between the food thresholds of 2000 and June 2009, SWS said, “is the extent of belt-tightening made by food-poor Metro Manila households.”

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults, divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao, and 600 in the rest of Luzon.

It had a margin of error of plus-minus 2.5 percentage points for national percentages, plus-minus 6 percentage points for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao, and plus-minus 4 percentage points for Luzon outside Metro Manila. –Eliza Victoria, Philippine Daily Inquirer