Malacañang on Sunday brushed off the recent survey that recorded the highest self-related poverty rate in five years and said that over 13.1 million families or 54 percent of the respondents considered themselves poor as of December 2019.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said it was normal for figures to “fluctuate” as he assured the public that the country’s economic managers would ensure more people would be lifted out of poverty.
“There were times that it would fluctuate depending on the sentiments of the people and on circumstances,” Panelo said in a radio interview.
“Our economic managers are competent and they would know what to do to remedy the need.”
The Social Weather Stations poll released Thursday showed that the self-rated poverty in December last year was higher than September 2019 figures.
Panelo expressed confidence that the Duterte administration could reduce the number of Filipinos who consider themselves poor this year.
“We have so many incoming projects. That would create more jobs and our countrymen would be given the chance to improve their lives,” he said.
The SWS survey showed that self-poverty rates were highest in the Visayas and Mindanao with 67 percent and 64 percent, respectively. This was followed by Luzon with 47 percent and Metro Manila with 41 percent.
The quarterly 12-point rise in nationwide self-rated poverty was due to sharp increases in all areas.
Metro Manila and Luzon saw the highest increase with 16 and 13 points, respectively. This was followed by Mindanao (11 points) and the Visayas (8 points).
The poll also revealed that the self-rated poverty threshold”•or the minimum monthly budget poor families need for home expenses in order not to be poor”•was P12,000 in December 2019.
The same survey also showed that self-rated food poverty rose to 35 percent in December 2019, 6 points higher than the 29 percent in its September 2019 survey.
This figure of food-poor families translates to 8.6 million families in December and 7.1 million families in September.