Number of Pinoy families who consider themselves poor declines

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor slightly declined, following typhoons “Ondoy” and “Pepeng” that hit the country, according to a latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Fifty-one percent or 9.4 million families nationwide considered themselves poor as of October, slightly lower than the 53 percent or 9.7 million in September, results of the SWS survey, which appeared in BusinessWorld, showed yesterday.

The survey, conducted from Oct. 24 to 27, was done to assess the effects of the two tropical cyclones, which hit the country late September and early October, causing over P38 billion in damage and almost a thousand deaths.

The latest SWS survey also found that 40 percent or 7.4 million families considered themselves “food-poor,” slightly lower than the 41 percent or 7.5 million families in September.

The SWS has attributed the overall self-rated poverty improvement to a three-point decline in Mindanao (54 percent from 57 percent) as well as a two-point drop in the balance of Luzon (49 percent from 51 percent).

Self-rated poverty also dropped to 40 percent from 41 percent in Metro Manila, while it remained at 60 percent in the Visayas.

It rose by eight points in rural areas from 59 percent to 67 percent.

However, it declined by five points in urban areas from 46 percent to 41 percent.

The SWS said the storms could also be behind a five-point increase in self-rated food poverty in the balance of Luzon (43 percent from 38 percent).

But this was also offset by decreases in Metro Manila from 35 percent in September to 28 percent in October.

In Mindanao, it also dropped to 37 percent from 43 percent, while in the Visayas, it rose to 46 percent from 48 percent.

The self-rated poverty threshold, which refers to the monthly budget that poor households need so as not to consider themselves poor, rose to P19,000 in Metro Manila from P15,000 in September, the first time such was achieved in the area.

SWS said the amount is equivalent to P11,957 in 2000 purchasing power after deflation by the consumer price index. With the base year threshold at P10,000, it said this had exceeded only seven times in 36 surveys since 2001.  – Helen Flores, Philippine Star