11 M families still rate selves poor

A little over half of Filipino families or about 11.2 million still consider themselves

“mahirap” or poor, according to the second quarter survey of the Social Weather Stations (SWS).

The SWS survey, conducted from June 5 to 8, showed that self-rated poverty nationwide remained steady at 51 percent.

The poll also found 37 percent, or an estimated 8.1 million, of families describing themselves to be “food poor,” up slightly from 36 percent, or an estimated 7.9 million, in March.

The results of the latest SWS survey on

self-rated poverty and self-rated food poverty were published in the newspaper Business World yesterday.

SWS said self-rated poverty dropped by 12 points in the Visayas to 58 percent, and by a point in balance Luzon to 43 percent.

These decreases, however, were offset by increases in Mindanao and Metro Manila, the pollster said.

In Mindanao, self-rated poverty rose by eight points to 70 percent in June and by two points in Metro Manila to 33 percent.

Self-rated food poverty fell in the Visayas to 40 percent in June from 45 percent in March.

The rating “hardly changed” in Luzon areas outside Metro Manila, slightly up to 29 percent in June from a record-low 28 percent in March.

In Mindanao, self-rated food poverty rose to 58 percent in June from 52 percent in March. In Metro Manila, the rating increased by three points to 23 percent.

Meanwhile, SWS said the median self- rated poverty threshold – or the minimum monthly budget that the poorer half of households need for home expenses in order not to consider themselves “poor” – rose to P20,000 from P15,000.

Poverty thresholds increased in Metro Manila last month compared to March. In balance Luzon, it fell by P5,000 to P10,000, while the amount stayed at P10,000 in the Visayas and Mindanao.