SWS: 10.8 M families see themselves poor

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families who consider themselves mahirap or poor increased by 400,000 in the past three months, a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

Results of the SWS poll, which were published in the newspaper BusinessWorld yesterday, found 50 percent of Filipino households (10.8 million) describing themselves as poor, up from 49 percent (10.4 million) in June.

The third quarter SWS survey, which was conducted from Sept. 20 to 30, used face-to-face interviews with 1,200 Filipino adults nationwide.

Self-rated poverty rose by 14 points in Mindanao; by five points to 62 percent in the Visayas, and by four points to 44 percent in Metro Manila.

However, it fell by six points to 42 percent in balance Luzon in September.

“Self-rated poverty was not significantly different from the previous quarter, or from the four-quarter average of 2012 either,” the SWS noted.

Meanwhile, self-rated food poverty fell to 37 percent from 40 percent.

“But self-rated food poverty was lowest of [the] past four quarters, and significantly less than the average of 2012,” the SWS said.

Self-rated poverty and food poverty averaged 52 and 41 percent respectively, last year.

SWS attributed the improvement in food poverty “to a big decline in balance Luzon that more than made up for the slight increases elsewhere.”

Food poverty went down by 12 points in balance Luzon. –Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)