Self-rated poverty high at 51%—SWS

Filipinos who consider themselves poor remain in the majority despite the claims of President Aquino and his allies that the economy is taking off and is catching up with the country’s more developed neighbors, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on self-rated poverty for the second quarter showed.

The survey, held last May 24 to 27 and made exclusive to BusinessWorld, found 51 percent of respondents who rated themselves as poor.

The figure was already an improvements from March, when 55 percent of respondents consider themselves poor.

The survey showed that 39 percent of respondents considered themselves poor because they did not have enough to eat or a six-point improvement from the survey in March that showed 45 percent who considered themselves deficient in their daily food intake. The self-rated poverty and food poverty remain high in all regions with the survey also noting that Filipino families continue to tighten their belts.

The survey showed self-rated poverty in Mindanao remained high at 65 percent, which was seven points better than the previous survey in March. The figures were 41 percent in Metro Manila, 57 percent in the Visayas and 43 percent in the entire Luzon outside Metro Manila.

The poverty level improved to 61 percent in rural areas and 42 percent in the urban areas.

Self-rated food poverty was at 53 percent in Mindanao, 32 percent in Luzon outside the metropolis, 25 percent in Metro Manila and 47 percent in the Visayas.

In noting continued belt-tightening by Filipino households, the SWS said self-rated thresholds on poverty or the monthly budget needed to answer the most basic needs remained on a level with the median poverty threshold for poor households rising to P15,000 in Metro Manila and P10,000 in the Visayas and Mindanao but declined to P9,000 in Balance Luzon.

Median food-poverty thresholds, meanwhile, rose to P7,000 in Metro Manila and P5,000 in Mindanao and the Visayas, but fell to P4,500 in Balance Luzon.

The SWS survey was taken from interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide and utilized sampling error margins of plus and negative three percent for the national figures and plus and negative six percent for individual regions.

UP School of Economics professore Benjamin Diokno said the Aquino administration should not ignore the high self-rated poverty figures since Filipinos, who are “innately proud,” would have suffered much to admit that they are poor.

“The wake-up calls have been there for a long time,” Diokno said.

“For Filipinos to admit they are poor means the situation is really bad,” Diokno added.

He urged the government to initiate “labor-intensive” projects to counter the current weakness in the economy.