7.6 million families hungry in past 3 months, highest hunger rate since 2014 — SWS

by Krissy Aguilar, Inquirer, 27 Sep 2020

MANILA, Philippines — Some 7.6 million Filipino households experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months, the highest hunger incidence since 2014, results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed Sunday.

Of 1,249 adult Filipinos surveyed from September 17 to 20, 30.7 percent of them said they experienced “hunger due to lack of food to eat,” higher than the 20.9 percent recorded in July.

The figure is the highest recorded since March 2012 at 23.8 percent, SWS noted.

The survey comes as the Philippines nears its seventh month of community quarantine which shuttered businesses and restricted movement of the public to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of the 7.6 million families, 22 percent or an estimate of 5.5 million families said they experienced moderate hunger or “only once or a few times” in the last three months.

Meanwhile, 8.7 percent or an estimate of 2.2 million families experienced severe hunger or “often or always” during the same period.

SWS also found that the overall hunger in Visayas, Mindanao, and Metro Manila reached new-record highs.

Overall hunger in Visayas increased from 27.2 percent or 1.3 families in July to 40.7 percent or 1.9 million families in September.

In Mindanao, 37.5 percent or 2.1 million families experienced hunger in September, up from 24.2 percent or 1.4 million families in July.

Metro Manila, meanwhile, saw an increase in hunger from 16.3 percent or an estimate of 546,000 families in July to 28.2 percent or 941,000 families in September.

The survey involved an interview of 1,249 adult Filipinos through mobile phone and computer-assisted telephone interviewing, subdivided according to population density, 309 in Metro Manila, 328 in Balance Luzon, 300 in the Visayas, and 312 in Mindanao.

The SWS maintains sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, ±6% for Metro Manila, ±5% for Balance Luzon, ±6% for the Visayas, and ±6% for Mindanao.

JE