SWS: MORE PINOYS WENT HUNGRY AMID PANDEMIC

THE number of Filipino families, who experienced hunger in the past three months, has doubled as the government grapples to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in the country, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey.

The poll, conducted from May 4 to 10 among 4,010 respondents nationwide, showed that 16.7 percent of Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger or hunger because of lack of food beginning February.

“This is nearly double the 8.8 percent ( estimated 2.1 million families) in December 2019 and the highest since the 22.0 percent (estimated 4.8 million families) in September 2014,” the SWS said.

The result is made up of 13.9 percent of total Filipino families who experienced “moderate hunger” or those who experienced hunger “once” or “a few times” in the last three months, and 2.8 percent who experienced “severe hunger” or those who experienced it “often” or “always.”

The SWS said moderate hunger rose from 7.3 percent (estimated 1.8 million families) in December 2019 to 13.9 percent in May 2020, the highest since September 2015, while severe hunger rose from 1.5 percent (estimated 357,000 families) in December 2019 to 2.7 percent in May 2020, the highest since September 2018.

The SWS attributed the higher hunger rate to the increases in Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.

Hunger in Metro Manila rose to 20.8 percent or 693,000 families from December 2019’s 9.3 percent or 307,000 families, while in Balance Luzon, hunger incidence was at 12.6 percent or 1.4 million families, higher than the 6.3 percent or 688,000 families recorded in December last year.

Hunger rate also rose in the Visayas (14.6 percent or 685,000 families from 9.3 percent or 436,000 families) and Mindanao (24.2 percent or 1.4 million families from 12.7 percent or 709,000 families).

Most of those who experienced hunger were families with fewer years of formal schooling, according to SWS.

The same survey also found that 99 percent of Filipino families had already received relief food packages, mostly from the government, since the Covid-19 crisis.

“Government was the most common source of food-help at 99 percent, followed by relatives at 22 percent, private groups or institutions like churches and nongovernment organizations at 16 percent, friends at 10 percent, and private individuals at 8 percent,” SWS said.

Palace spokesman Harry Roque said the Palace was saddened that there was a huge spike in the number of Filipino families who went hungry in the past three months.

But he assured the public that the government would exhaust all efforts to help Filipino households who were experiencing hunger amid the Covid-19 crisis.

“Nais sana nating maiwasan iyong ganyang malungkot na balita, pero talaga pong kapag sarado ang ekonomiya ay marami talagang nahihirapan at naiintindihan po iyan ng ating Pangulo (Rodrigo Duterte). Kaya nga po sana magtulungan na tayong lahat para po lalo pa nating mabuksan ang ating ekonomiya (We wish we could avoid such sad news. But when the economy is closed, many will face difficulties and our President understands that. So, let’s all work together to further open our economy),” Roque said in a television interview.

The SWS poll was conducted through mobile phones and computer-assisted telephone interviewing of 4,010 working-age Filipinos, as the lockdown measures made it difficult to conduct face-to-face interviews.

It had sampling error margins of plus or minus 2 percentage points for national percentages, 6 percentage points for Metro Manila, 2 percentage points for Balance Luzon, and 3 percentage points each for the Visayas and Mindanao.