MORE Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the last three months of 2016, but their number remained steady compared to previous quarters, the latest Social Weather Stations survey showed.
Conducted among 1,500 adult respondents, the survey claimed 13.9 percent or an estimated 3.1 million families experienced involuntary hunger at least once, 3.3 points higher than September 2016’s net self-rated hunger of 10.6 percent, or an estimated 2.4 million families.
The latest rating is also 2.2 points more than the previous record of 11.7 percent in December 2015, estimated at 2.6 million families.
Conducted from Dec. 3 to 6, the survey has a sampling margin of error at ±3 points for quarterly national percentages.
Those who experienced “moderate hunger” were at 10.9 percent while those who said they experienced “severe hunger” were at 3 percent, the survey said.
Both numbers are higher than those recorded in September 2016, when those experiencing moderate hunger were at 9.1 percent and those at severe hunger at 1.5 percent.
The survey also found that the portion of the Filipino population who went hungry at least once in 2016 was the smallest in 12 years, with the average hunger incidence at 13.3 percent, the lowest since the 11.8 percent recorded in 2004.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, who welcomed the survey, said the results were a gentle reminder “that the government needs to continue working double time to implement socio-economic reforms.”
The Palace, however, blamed the increased number of poor to many factors, including increased food prices due to inflation and seasonal demand owing to the Christmas holidays when the survey was conducted.
“While the present administration has only been in place for more than six months, it needs to address long-standing economic backlogs,” Abella said in a briefing.
“We’d like to assure the people that to the President, inclusive prosperity is part of the President’s agenda, and that it is also admitted there is a lot of groundwork to be done, especially [since] the administration is new, there is a lot to be done.”