Fewer hungry families, but there are still 2.8 million of them

THERE are two ways of looking at the latest survey figures of the Social Weather Stations on hungry families in the Philippines. One is to stress that the hunger rate is the lowest in ten years – only 12.7 percent of the 1,200 respondents in the survey, equivalent to 2.8 million hungry families. Ten years ago, in May, 2005, it was 12 percent. The highest recorded hunger rate was 23.8 percent in March, 2012.

The other way is to point out that those are still 2.8 million hungry families out there. Of this total, 2.4 million families reported “moderate hunger” while 431,000 families who reported “severe hunger” during the three months covered by the survey.

As in previous surveys, Malacañang vowed to continue implementing its programs and policies to contribute to better overall quality of life for the people. It cited the drop in the hunger rating from 16.3 percent in June last year to 12.7 percent this year. It did not comment on the fact that the drop in rating in the last three months was very slight – from 13.5 percent in March to 12.7 percent in June.

It is to be expected that people anywhere choose to see what they want to see. Malacañang sees that the number of hungry families is the lowest in the last 10 years, surely an indication of programs that are succeeding. On the other hand, critics see that the improvement since March is slight – and that there are still 2.8 million hungry families in the country.

The national government must be cited for the achievement of lowering the number of hungry families in the country. But it should now concentrate on lowering the number further. Those 2.8 million hungry families are all over the country – 553,000 families in Metro Manila with 1.1 million in the rest of Luzon, 470,000 in the Visayas, and 726,000 in Mindanao.

Its principal program to help the poor appears to be the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) which doles out monthly stipends to listed families. Without stopping this program – despite the claim that it fosters a mendicant mentality – a job-creation program could be devised that would have a more lasting impact on national development while creating employment.