SWS survey: Fewer hungry in RP under Aquino gov’t

The Aquino administration yesterday claimed that the marked improvement in the country’s self-rated hunger ratings is the best demonstration that the government’s conditional cash transfer (CCT) program is working.

In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Malacanang is pleased with the recent results of the self-rated hunger survey conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS), saying “the numbers are encouraging and the government must sustain this momentum.”

“This is a significant plunge from the self-rated hunger rates reported in previous periods. Indeed, standing at 15.1 percent, the latest national figure for self-rated hunger is the lowest in four years,” Lacierda said.

“We view these numbers as encouraging, reflecting, as they do, the perceptions and opinions of our countrymen at a particular period in time. Hunger is an indicator of poverty, and self-rated hunger is just one way to measure the incidence of poverty in our society,” he added.

According to Lacierda, he acknowledged that the government has to sustain its efforts to defeat hunger and noted that the only way to have an enduring, meaningful effect on public perception is to have a tangible and lasting impact on actual poverty reduction.

“The CCT in particular has components that should help address poverty in the society, “ he said as he noted that this month the government is enrolling the 2 million beneficiary of the CCT which will be witnessed by the President himself.

Likewise, the CCT which gives financial support to the poorest of the poor is a program that was first carried by the Arroyo administration which being accused by President Aquino of massive corruption.

Based on SWS’s June 3-6 survey, 15.1 percent or 3 million families experienced hunger at least once in the past three months. This indicates a 5.4 percent drop from March’s 20.5 percent or an estimated 4.1 million families.

The latest hunger rate is the lowest since June 2007 when the prevalence among households was at 14.7 percent.

Severe hunger rate on the other hand, or families who said they have nothing to eat often or always declined to 2.0 percent, its lowest level since 2003. SWS found that the total number of families suffering from severe hunger went down to 403,000 from 950,000 families in March.

Presidential Communication Operations Office Secretary Herminio “Sonny” Coloma said the CCT program has started to take effect as evidenced by the recent SWS survey on self-rated hunger.

“These figures clearly show the impact of our CCT in the lives of the poorest of the poor. We are confident that the CCT and our other programs aimed at reducing poverty in the next five years will succeed in ensuring that no more Filipino will be left behind in our journey toward prosperity for all envisioned in the “Pilipinas Natin.”

President Aquino launched last Thursday the “Pilipinas Natin” program, a campaign aimed at bringing the country toward progress through partnership of the people and the government.

Meanwhile, millions of extremely poor Filipinos are enjoying eating more food, with hunger rates dropping to their lowest levels in four years, according to a national survey released yesterday.

A spokesman for President Aquino, who marked 12 months in office this week, said the data released by Social Weather Stations could be a sign that his government’s efforts to fight poverty were starting to have an impact.

The Manila-based Social Weather Stations said 15.1 percent of respondents in June reported suffering hunger, defined as not having enough to eat several times in a month, compared with 20.5 percent in April.

Projecting the figures on a nationwide scale, the polling firm said 3 million families were still going hungry, but this was down from 4.1 million families and the best figure since 2007.

Aquino’s spokesman Ricky Carandang, welcomed the data although he said the the government did not take full credit.

“I’m not necessarily saying it is because we did it, but we have been committed to reducing poverty, and reducing poverty will have an effect on reducing hunger,” Carandang told AFP.

One in four Filipinos live on a dollar a day or less, according to a government survey in 2009. –Virgilio J. Bugaoisan with reports from AFP