More hungry PH families, says survey

More Filipino families have experienced involuntary hunger because of lack of food at least once in the past three months, the third quarter Social Weather Stations survey has found out.

In the nationwide survey conducted from Sept. 15 to 23 among 1,500 respondents, SWS found out that 13.3 percent or an estimated 3.1 million families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.

According to SWS, the measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answered a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of food to eat.

The latest figure is 3.9 points above the 9.4 percent or about 2.2 million families quarterly hunger in June 2018. This is the highest since the 15.9 percent in December 2017.

The quarterly hunger rate rose by 4.3 points in Metro Manila, from 13 percent (412,000 families) in June 2018 to 17.3 percent in September 2018 (549,000); by 5.4 points in the rest of Luzon, from 7.3 percent (758,000 families) to 12.7 percent (1.3 million families); and by seven points in Mindanao, from 11.3 percent (604,000 families) to 18.3 percent (975,000 families).

It fell by 3.3 points in Visayas, from 9.3 percent (419,000 families) in June to six percent (269,000 families).

The third quarter 2018 hunger rate is composed of 10.6 percent (2.5 million families) who experienced moderate hunger and 2.8 percent (643,000 families) who experienced severe hunger.

SWS refers to moderate hunger to those who experienced hunger "only once" or "a few times" in the last three months, while severe hunger refers to those who experienced it "often" or "always" in the last three months.