Self-rated poverty, hunger fall in Q3: OCTA

CHRISTMAS IS HERE. A mall in Manila welcomes shoppers with a colorful “Happy Holidays” sign on Monday (Oct. 16, 2023). The Philippines is known for celebrating the world’s longest Christmas season, with festivities starting in September and concluding Jan. 6, The Epiphany. (PNA photo by Yancy Lim)

MANILA – Fewer Filipino families considered themselves poor in the third quarter of 2023, according to OCTA’s “Tugon ng Masa” survey results released on Tuesday.

The survey, conducted from Sept. 30 to Oct. 4, showed that 46 percent, or an estimated 12.1 million Filipino families, consider themselves poor, lower than the estimated 13.2 million families or 50 percent recorded in July.

This means that 1.1 million families felt that their situation got better in the third quarter, according to the pollster.

“The 4 percent decrease represents approximately 1 million families and is the first time in three quarters that a dip in self-rated poverty was observed,” OCTA said.

Balance Luzon saw the largest decline, with rates falling from 46 percent to 37 percent.

Meanwhile, Visayas has the highest percentage of adult Filipinos who consider their families poor at 59 percent, followed by Mindanao at 58 percent.

The same survey also showed that around 10 percent, or an estimated 2.6 million Filipino families, experienced involuntary hunger in the past three months “before the survey period’.

The September 2023 self-rated hunger figure is lower than the recorded 15 percent, or around 3.9 million families, in the second quarter survey conducted in July.

“The 5 percent decrease represents approximately 1.3 million families and is the first time in three quarters that a dip in self-rated hunger was observed,” OCTA said.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of over 1,200 adults nationwide.

Gov’t interventions are working

Speaker Martin Romualdez expressed elation over the drop in the number of Filipino families that consider themselves poor, noting that the government intervention programs were “working”.

“We should all welcome and be happy about this piece of good news. It means that the intervention programs of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., supported by the legislature, principally the House of Representatives, are working,” Romualdez said.

He vowed that the House, alongside the Executive branch, would continue efforts to ease poverty and hunger among the population.

“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, from 4.3 percent in the second quarter to 5.9 percent in the third quarter, and to the government intervention measures.

“I believe that the improvement in the poverty numbers reflects the trickle-down effect of economic expansion, though we often say growth is not tangibly felt by our people. But somehow, they benefitted from it, because growth means more economic activities and additional income and job opportunities for our people,” he said.

“The decision of President Marcos to put a price cap on rice and his campaign against price manipulation, profiteering, hoarding, and smuggling of agricultural products stabilized the prices of basic staples,” he added.

He pointed out that the House helped in the President’s campaign by exercising its oversight power and conducting inquiries into supply chain problems and recommending solutions.

Aside from the OCTA survey, a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll showed that the number of Filipino families who faced “involuntary hunger” at least once in the last three months dropped to 9.8 percent in September 2023, down from 10.4 percent in June this year.

SWS said the rate of overall hunger fell among the self-rated poor from 10.8 percent in June 2023 to 7.7 percent in September 2023, as well as among the self-rated food-poor from 9.4 percent to 7 percent.