More Pinoys experience hunger in Metro Manila, Mindanao in Q2 of 2018

“Hunger also fell among the Self-Rated Food Poor, falling by 6 points from 20.8% in March to 14.8% in June. However, it increased by 1.3 points among the Not Food-Poor/Food-Borderline, from 5.4% to 6.7%,” the pollster noted. (Shutterstock)

More Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in Metro Manila and Mindanao in the second quarter of 2018, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey done in June 2018.

The latest survey, which was conducted from June 27 to 30 this year, revealed that hunger in Metro Manila went up by seven points, from six percent (190,000 families) in March 2018 to 13 percent in June 2018.

Hunger in Mindanao also rose by four points, from 7.3 percent (390,000 families) in December to 11.

3 percent in June this year.

While hunger in Metro Manila and Mindanao increased, hunger in Balance Luzon and Visayas decreased.

In Balance Luzon, the number of Filipinos who experienced hunger went down from 11 percent (1.1 million families) in March to 7.3 percent in June, while in the Visayas, hunger fell from 13 percent (583,000 families) in March to 9.

3 percent in June. This is a 3.7 point decrease for both areas.

The pollster found out that 9.4 percent or an estimated of 2.2 million families nationwide experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

“This is 0.5 points below the 9.9% (est. 2.3 million families) quarterly Hunger in March 2018. This is only the third time Hunger has been in the single-digit range since March 2004,” the SWS said.

Among the 2.2 million Filipinos, 1.9 million said they experienced “moderate hunger,” while the remaining 294,000 said they experienced “severe hunger.

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The SWS indicated hunger as an “involuntary suffering” with the respondents answering the survey question which specifies hunger due to lack of food to eat.

“Moderate hunger,” it said, refers to those who experienced hunger “only once” or “a few times” in the past three months, while “severe hunger” was defined as those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the same period.

Those who did not state their frequency of hunger were classified under “moderate hunger,” according to the pollster.

Hunger falls among poor, rises among non-poor

From March to June, the SWS also disclosed that hunger dropped by 4.1 points, from 16.7 percent in March to 12.6 percent in June, among the “self-rated poor” — the lowest since September 2015.

In contrast, hunger among the “non-poor” went up from 4.9 percent in March to 6.5 percent in June.

“Hunger also fell among the Self-Rated Food Poor, falling by 6 points from 20.8% in March to 14.8% in June. However, it increased by 1.3 points among the Not Food-Poor/Food-Borderline, from 5.4% to 6.7%,” the pollster noted.

The June 2018 survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults (18 years old and above) nationwide with sampling error margins of plus or minus three percent for national percentages and plus o minus six percent each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The quarterly SWS survey on the family’s experience of hunger aredirectedd to the household head and are not commissioned, the SWS explained.

“They are done on SWS’s own initiative and released as a public service,” it added.