53% of families see selves as poor in survey Eliza Victoria Philippine Daily Inquirer
November 05, 2009
MANILA, Philippines—More than half of the total number of Filipino families consider themselves poor, while two in every five say they are "food-poor," according to the latest Social Weather Stations survey.
The first category refers to general poverty while the second means there is not enough food to eat.
The SWS 2009 3rd quarter survey—conducted from September 18 to 21 and released on Thursday—found that 53 percent of household heads, representing about 9.7 million families, considered themselves poor.
Twenty-eight percent placed themselves on the borderline, and 20 percent said they did not consider themselves as poor.
The SWS said the new self-rated poverty rate was three points up from the 50 percent (9.3 million families) who considered themselves poor in the previous June survey.
"It has been at levels of 50 percent and above since March 2008, except in February 2009 when it was at 47 percent," the SWS said.
In terms of self-rated food poverty, 41 percent of families, or 7.5 million, said they were food-poor, 35 percent put themselves on the borderline, and 24 percent considered themselves not food-poor.
The SWS said that the self-rated food poverty rate "has steadily risen from 36 percent in February, 39 percent in June, and 41 percent in September 2009 after declining from 42 percent in December 2008."
Self-rated poverty declined by five points in Mindanao, from 62 percent in June to 57 percent in September.
It rose by seven points in Balance Luzon (44 percent to 51 percent), and by four points in the Visayas (56 percent to 60 percent). It barely changed in Metro Manila (42 percent to 41 percent).
In the urban areas, self-rated poverty rose slightly by two points, from 44 percent to 46 percent, and by one point in rural areas, from 58 percent to 59 percent.
Self-rated food poverty also declined in Mindanao by four points, from 47 percent in June to 43 percent in September.
It rose by six points in the Visayas (42 percent to 48 percent) and by three points in both Metro Manila (32 percent to 35 percent) and Balance Luzon (35 percent to 38 percent).
The SWS said the self-rated poverty threshold—or the monthly budget that a poor household would need in order not to rate itself as being poor in general—remained "sluggish" for several years despite inflation, an indication that poor families have been tightening their belts.
As of September, the median poverty threshold for poor households rose to P15,000 in Metro Manila, and to P10,000 in Balance Luzon.
These figures were reached several times in the past in these regions, SWS noted.
The median poverty threshold of poor households stayed at P5,000 for Mindanao, and declined from P8,000 to P5,000 in the Visayas. Both regions’ thresholds had already reached P10,000 in the past.
Considering inflation, Metro Manila's median poverty threshold of P15,000 was equivalent to only P9,536 in terms of purchasing power in 2000, the base year, SWS has estimated.
The median food-poverty thresholds for poor households increased in Metro Manila (from P5,000 to P6,500) and in Balance Luzon (from P3,000 to P5,000).
It stood at P3,000 in both the Visayas and Mindanao. These levels had already been reached several years ago, SWS said.
SWS estimated that the median food poverty threshold of P6,500 in Metro Manila was equivalent to only P4,257 in 2000 in terms of purchasing power for food.
The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews with 1,800 adults, divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila and Mindanao, and 600 each in the rest of Luzon and in the Visayas.
It had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 2.3 percentage points for national percentages, plus-or-minus six percentage points for Metro Manila and Mindanao, and plus-or-minus four percentage points for Balance Luzon and the Visayas.
