More families see selves as poor–SWS
Rommel C. Lontayao
Manila Times
The Social Weather Stations (SWS) said recent surveys showing increasing self-rated poverty levels among Filipino families has “wiped out” what President Gloria Arroyo claimed in her State of the Nation Address regarding the country’s improving poverty situation.
SWS released on Thursday results of its latest survey, which was not commissioned, showing that around six of 10 Filipino families, or about 10.6 million, consider themselves as poor.
The June 2008 survey also showed an increasing number of families rating themselves as poor. In March, only 50 percent, or about nine million, were rated poor.
According to the SWS report, “59 percent of Filipino families, or about 10.6 million, rate themselves as poor, 24 percent put themselves on the borderline, and 17 percent rate themselves as not poor.”
The new self-rated poverty rate is nine points higher than that recorded in the first quarter of 2008, and 13 points above the previous low of 46 percent, or 8.1 million, in December 2007.
SWS noted that the self-rated poverty rates have been soaring high, “thus wiping out the decline in self-rated poverty to its 20-year low in 2007 mentioned in President Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address [last Monday].”
Meanwhile, the June 2008 survey also found that 49 percent of Filipino families, or 8.8 million, consider themselves as food-poor, 26 percent put themselves on the food-borderline, and 25 percent consider themselves as not food-poor.
Like in the self-rated poverty survey, the self-rated food poverty figures are going up, with the latest figure being nine points higher than in March 2008, and 15 points above the all-time low of 34 percent in December 2007.
Whole country affected
SWS said the increase in self-rated poverty was “steepest in the Visayas” where the figures went up by 19 points, from 47 percent in March to 66 percent in June.
Self-rated poverty rose by nine points in Mindanao, from 59 percent to 68 percent; by seven points in Metro Manila, from 44 percent to 51 percent; and by five points in Balance Luzon, from 48 percent to 53 percent.
On the other hand, self-rated food poverty also rose “most sharply” in the Visayas, from 32 percent in March to 53 percent in June. It rose by eight points in Metro Manila, from 35 percent to 43 percent; by seven points in Mindanao, from 50 percent to 57 percent; and by five points in Balance Luzon, from 39 percent to 44 percent.
SWS also reported that “the self-rated poverty threshold, or the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in general, has been sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation.”
“This indicates that poor families have been lowering their living standards, [for example], belt-tightening,” the SWS added.
In Metro Manila for example, the median poverty threshold still stood at P10,000 as in 2000, even though the consumer price index has risen there by 57 percent since then.
The latest SWS survey was conducted from June 27 to 30, using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Questions about the family’s poverty and food-poverty were directed to the household head. Margins of error are at plus or minus 3 percent for national percentages and plus or minus 6 percent for area percentages.
