Some 9.8 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger—being hungry and not having anything to eat – at least once in the past three months, the latest Social Weather Stations survey showed.
While the national average was better than the 10.4 percent reported in June, involuntary hunger in Metro Manila went up to 17.3 percent from 15.7 percent in June.
Involuntary hunger in the Balance of Luzon was higher than the national average, at 10.3 percent, but 1 percentage point lower than it was in June.
The Visayas and Mindanao had the lowest hunger rates, both at 6.7 percent.
A separate survey by OCTA Research, meanwhile, showed fewer Filipino families rated themselves poor and hungry in the third quarter.
The survey, conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, found that 46 percent of respondents or 12.1 million Filipino families considered themselves poor for the third quarter of 2023. The figure was 4 percentage points lower than the second quarter survey result of 50 percent or 13.2 million families.
SWS said the 9.8 percent hunger rate in September 2023 was the sum of 8.4 percent who experienced “moderate hunger” and 1.3 percent who experienced “severe hunger.”
Families categorized under “moderate hunger” have experienced hunger “only once or a few times” within the last three months, while those categorized under “severe hunger” have consistently faced hunger “often” or “always” of the same period.
In Metro Manila, moderate hunger rose by 1.3 points from 12 percent in June 2023 to 13.3 percent in September 2023.
Severe hunger in Metro Manila hardly changed from 3.7 percent to 4.0 percent.
In Balance of Luzon, moderate hunger rose by 0.7 points from 8.3 percent to 9 percent, while severe hunger fell by 1.7 points from 3 percent to 1.3 percent.
In the Visayas, moderate hunger fell by 2.6 points from 8.3 percent to 5.7 percent while severe hunger stayed at 1 percent.
In Mindanao, moderate hunger rose from 6 percent to 6.7 percent, while
severe hunger moved from 0.3 percent to zero.
The Third Quarter 2023 SWS survey interviewed 1,200 adults across the country, with 300 in Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon (or Luzon outside Metro Manila), the Visayas, and Mindanao.
The sampling error margins for national percentages are 2.8 percent, and 5.7 percent for Metro Manila, Balance of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.
In the OCTA survey, the decrease was mostly prominent in Balance of Luzon, whose rates went down from 46 percent to 37 percent, while Visayas had the highest percentage of Filipinos who considered themselves poor at 59 percent.
The same trend was observed in the self-rated hunger, which recorded a 5 percent decrease from July’s 15 percent (3.9 million families) to the latest 10 percent (2.6 million families).
Most of these families were in the Visayas at 13 percent, closely followed by Balance of Luzon at 11 percent.
OCTA said it was the first time in three quarters there was a dip in self-rated poverty and self-rated hunger.
OCTA also said 43 percent or 11.3 million families considered themselves food-poor, and that the median amount the reported families needed for home expenses would be about P33,000 a month.
Over 26 percent of adult Filipinos believe that the state of hunger in the country has worsened, while only 11 percent said that it has improved.
The percentage of adult Filipinos who say that the state of hunger has improved is highest in Visayas (30 percent) compared to all other major areas, OCTA said.
The non-commissioned survey data was gathered from face-to-face interviews with over 1,200 male and female respondents aged 18 and above, accounting for a ±3% margin of error at a 95 percent confidence level.
Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez expressed elation over the drop in the number of Filipino families that consider themselves poor and vowed to continue efforts to ease poverty and hunger among the population.
Romualdez said the administration and the House through its leaders and members should continue pursuing projects, programs and activities that would further reduce the number of poor and hungry Filipinos.
“We are committed to do all we can to improve the situation and make life better for our people,” he said.
Romualdez attributed the decrease in the number of poor Filipino families to the overall growth of the economy and to government intervention measures.
“I believe that the improvement in the poverty numbers reflect the trickle-down effect of economic expansion, though we often say growth is not tangibly felt by our people. But somehow, they benefited from it, because growth means more economic activities and additional income and job opportunities for our people,” he said.
He said government intervention and assistance programs also contributed to the decline in poverty and hunger.