[PHOTO COURTESY OF INQUIRER.NET BY DON LEJANO]
MANILA, JANUARY 29, 2012 (MALAYA) BY REGINA BENGCO - FILIPINOS are lowering their standards of living back to where they were when President Aquino first assumed office one-and-a-half years ago, the Dec. 3-7 Social Weather Stations survey revealed.
The survey, which had 1,200 respondents, showed that the self-rated poverty threshold or monthly budget that a respondent thinks his family needs to live decently has dropped.
According to the survey, the average Metro Manila resident believes that he now needs only P10,000 a month in order to live decently. The poverty threshold last September, based on the perception of the respondents, should be P16,000.
In Luzon, it declined from P7,500 to P6,000 and in the Visayas from P10,000 to P6,000. It stayed at P6,000 in Mindanao.
SWS said the self-rated poverty threshold has remained sluggish in the past years "despite considerable inflation."
"This indicates that poor families have been lowering their living standards, i.e., belt-tightening," SWS said.
The self-rated poverty threshold levels during the first quarter under the Aquino administration (September 2010) were P10,000 for Metro Manila, P9,500 for Luzon, P6,000 for the Visayas, and P5,000 for Mindanao.
The survey said the food-poverty threshold, which is the average monthly food expense that a family should have in order not to be considered poor, fell back to P5,000 from P6,000 last September in Metro Manila and to P3,750 from P5,000 in the Visayas. It stayed at P4,000 in Luzon and P3,500 in Mindanao.
The same SWS survey also showed that the number of families who consider themselves poor fell from 52 percent (est. 10.4 million Filipinos) to 45 percent (9.1 million Filipinos).
About 36 percent (est. 7.2 million Filipinos) considered themselves food-poor, which is a five-point improvement from 41 percent (est. 8.2 million) in September.
FROM GMA NEWS TV
SWS survey: 1 in 4 Filipino families claims to be hungry January 12, 2010 12:45pm
Hunger among Filipinos worsened to historic levels after results of a new survey said that one in four families experienced having no food on the table.
Undertaken last quarter by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), the latest poll said the number of Filipino families that claimed to be hungry reached 4.4 million, and the hunger measure at 24 percent last month.
This was more than five points higher than at the end of September and worse than the previous record of 23.7 percent in December 2008.
However, fewer families considered themselves poor after a one-point decline was observed among those who classified themselves as food-poor.
Self-rated poverty stood at 46 percent (about 8.5 million families), down from 51 percent three months earlier, while self-rated food poverty was at 39 percent, down from 40 percent in the third quarter.
Ondoy, Pepeng
The SWS did not say why hunger worsened, but University of the Philippines professor and former National Treasurer Leonor Briones said tropical cyclones Ondoy and Pepeng contributed to the worsening hunger among Filipinos.
The aftermath of the cyclones exacerbated the Philippines' high hunger rates, which she attributed to "bad governance" and the effects of the global economic slump.
A report by the United Nations and World Bank earlier pegged damages and losses from Ondoy and Pepeng (international names Ketsana and Parma, respectively) — the worst natural disaster in the region since the East Asian tsunami of 2005 — at $4.38 billion, which is equivalent to 2.7 percent of the country's total economic output.
"It's not surprising that the hunger level is high — the economy has not fully recovered," Briones said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV on Tuesday.
She also pointed out that while the country's population rate remained high at 2.3 percent — mostly made up of young and dependent Filipinos — the government has not developed sectors such as agriculture to address the country's food woes.
The December 5 to 10 SWS survey showed that 800,000 more households felt moderate hunger — experienced "only once" or "a few times" — to 3.6 million last December.
In the meantime, 170,000 more Filipino families experienced severe hunger — experienced "often" or "always" — to 870,000.
As a result, moderate hunger rose to 19.3 percent last month from 15 percent at the end of September, while severe hunger rose to 4.7 percent from 3.8 percent, the SWS said.
The pollster said overall hunger was up in all areas, rising by 11 points to 27 percent (665,000 families) in Metro Manila; by eight points to 27.9 percent (one million families) in the Visayas; by more than six points to 24.5 percent (one million families) in Mindanao; and by two points to 21.2 percent (1.7 million families) for the rest of Luzon.
Moderate hunger rose by more than eight points to 19.7 percent in Metro Manila, by over six points to 21.3 percent in Mindanao; by almost five points to 21.5 percent in the Visayas; and by almost two points to 17.2 percent for the rest of Luzon.
Similarly, severe hunger rose by three points in both Metro Manila and the Visayas to 7.3 percent and 6.4 percent, respectively.
In Mindanao, it barely moved at 3.1 percent, while it was steady at 4 percent for the rest of Luzon, the survey, which conducted face-to-face interviews with 2,100 adults nationwide, said.
The SWS said both self-rated and food poverty indicators slid in most areas but slightly rose in Mindanao. The respondents were asked if their families were poor, on the line, or not poor.
Households were also asked to base their answers on the type of food they eat.
Self-rated poverty was down by two points to 38 percent in Metro Manila, while its was six points lower at 43 percent for the rest of Luzon. It was 10 points down to 50 percent in the Visayas, while it barely changed at 55 percent in Mindanao, the survey said.
Belt-tightening
Meanwhile, self-rated food poverty was two points up to 30 percent in Metro Manila, but seven points lower at 36 percent for the rest of Luzon.
The indicator also went down by five points to 41 percent in the Visayas, but rose by 11 points to 48 percent in Mindanao.
The SWS said Filipino families continued to live more frugally, with the self-rated poverty threshold — the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in general — barely changing despite rising consumer prices.
The average poverty threshold for poor households went down to P12,000.
In Metro Manila, the amount went down to P12,000, while it rose to P8,000 for the rest of Luzon, to P7,000 in the Visayas, and to P6,000 in Mindanao.
The SWS noted that the P12,000 threshold in Metro Manila was barely up from P10,000 in 2000, considering that prices of goods had since gone up by almost two-thirds. The current level, it added, was equivalent to only P7, 491 in base year 2000 purchasing power. -
To ease situation
Meanwhile, the administration said it would ease the situation before President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's term ends on June 30.
The National Nutrition Council and Department of Health are now coordinating on hunger mitigation programs, according to National Anti-Poverty Commission Chairman Domingo Panganiban.
"Yan ang projection na sinasagawa ng facilitated hunger mitigation program ng NNC at DOH, mag-coordinate at mag-monitor (That is the projection of the NNC and DOH's facilitated hunger mitigation program)," Panganiban said on Tuesday in an interview on dzXL radio.
He agree to Briones' observation that much of the hunger could be traced to the devastation caused by Ondoy, which caused heavy damage to farms and fisheries.
"Ang naapektuhan ang magsasaka, wala silang mapro-produce within the next two-and-a-half months. Ganoon din ang mangingisda (The damage affected farmers who could not produce crops in the next two-and-a-half months. The same goes with fishermen)," he said. - with a report from Johanna Camille Sisante/NPA/ARCS/RJAB, Jr./ GMANews.TV
VIDEO: ISA SA BAWAT 4 NA PAMILYANG PINOY, NAKAKARANAS NG GUTOM - SWS SURVEY
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
