Hunger continues to rise

THE POOR may have become fewer but more of them went hungry, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a new report that government officials admitted showed the need for increased intervention.

After recently reporting that self-rated poverty had plunged to 45% from 52% based on a Dec. 3-7 nationwide poll, the SWS said the same survey found 22.5% of the respondents claiming to have experienced having nothing to eat, up slightly from September’s 21.5%.

The one-point gain, it said, raised the number of families that experienced involuntary hunger to an estimated 4.5 million, from 4.1 million three months earlier.

Specifically, a 1.2-point rise in severe hunger -- experiencing it “often” or “always” -- to 4.7% (955,000 families), offset moderate hunger’s -- having nothing to eat “only once” or “a few times” -- 0.3-point fall to 17.7% (3.57 million families).

A Malacañang official said the higher hunger figure, while derived from “impressionistic, anecdotal evidence,” was a concern. Programs, the Socioeconomic planning chief said, are being fine-tuned.

Hunger among self-rated poor families, the SWS said, increased to 33.6% from 27.9%. Among households rating themselves as food-poor (down to 36% from 41%), hunger also rose to 38.1% from 31.1%.

Severe hunger among poor families was higher at 8% from 5.5% in September, and also rose to 9.1% from 6.9% among the food-poor. Moderate hunger, meanwhile, hit 25.6% from 22.4% previously among the poor, and gained to 29% from 24.2% among the food-poor.

“Some hunger also exists among families calling themselves Non-Poor or Borderline,” the SWS said, “but the proportion is much less than among those calling themselves poor.”

By region, overall hunger fell in Balance Luzon and in Metro Manila, but increased in the Visayas and Mindanao.

The Balance Luzon drop was 5.3 points to 23% from the record-high 28.3% hit in September, and was a lower single percentage point in Metro Manila to 22.0% from 23.0%. In the Visayas, it rose by 9.7 points to 25.0%, and by 6.7 points in Mindanao to 19.7%.

Moderate hunger fell by 7.3 points in Balance Luzon to 17%, was barely changed in Metro Manila at 17%, but increased by nine and five points, respectively, in the Visayas to 22% and in Mindanao to 16%.

The new moderate hunger rates are higher than their 13-year averages for all areas, the SWS said.

Severe hunger, meanwhile, rose in all areas except in Metro Manila, where it fell by 1.3 points to 5%.

It rose two points in Balance Luzon to 6%, just short of the record high. It also gained by 1.7 points in Mindanao to 3.7% and by almost a point in the Visayas to 3%.

The latest severe hunger rates were again higher than their 13-year averages in Metro Manila and Balance Luzon but were lower in the Visayas and in Mindanao, the SWS said.

Asked to comment on the report, Sec. Herminio B. Coloma, Jr. of the Presidential Communications Operations Office said, “We are concerned about those figures. Hunger is an aspect of poverty and we would like to address it with equal effectiveness...”

“We would like to understand better the results. As these figures have been derived from impressionistic, anecdotal evidence, government should do more detailed hunger incidence studies,” he added.

Mr. Coloma claimed the government continued to place poverty reduction on top of its social welfareand development agenda.

“We are targeting to increase the CCT (conditional cash transfer) beneficiary base to three million families this year. Hopefully hunger incidence may be reduced, too, as government pursues various social development programs,” he said.

Mr. Coloma said tropical storm Sendong (international name Washi), which devastated parts of Mindanao, could have contributed to the hunger woes.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga, Jr., meanwhile, said President Benigno S.C. Aquino III had already instructed the human development and poverty reduction cluster to look into the situation.

“We are checking what policies can be done to address the hunger issue. In our initial findings, we found that if you improve employment generation then you can effectively address hunger -- so we are actively promoting tourism and agro-industrial processing, and we are looking for more industries for high labor content,” Mr. Paderanga said.

The SWS’ December poll utilized face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults nationwide. The sampling error margins used were ±3% for national and ±6% for area percentages.