The Philippine Online Chronicles

Poverty and hunger incidence in the country remained almost the same last year despite record-high approval ratings for the Aquino administration, says a survey report by pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS).

Based on the 2012 SWS Survey Review of the Social Weather Stations, 49 percent of the families surveyed rated themselves as poor in 2011, a notch higher than the 48 percent self-rated poverty recorded in 2010.

The survey report, which was presented in a forum on Tuesday, was based on the survey firm’s four quarterly surveys in 2011, and a special national survey conducted in July 2011, a BusinessWorld report said.

“Poverty and hunger have both been flat for several years,” SWS president Mahar Mangahas said, adding that the surveys “provide realistic and updated poverty thresholds.”

Mangahas said a poor family would need at least P8,000 per month to keep themselves out of poverty, with half of it for food expenses and the other half for implicit non-food items excluding transportation.

“This is very different from the official proclamation that the division between food and nonfood should be approximately 70 percent food and only 30 percent nonfood. I always say, that’s too stingy, that’s not enough for the non-food elements,” Mangahas said in a Business Mirror report. “More or less, the difference between food and non-food should be 50-50. That’s fair and that’s what poor people say is what they need.”

Families in the National Capital Region need a much higher monthly income of at least P12,000 to be considered “not poor,” according to the SWS report.

Furthermore, the SWS year-end report highlighted that hunger in the Philippines plateaued in two years, total hunger incidence increasing by less than a percentage point in 2011 to 19.9% from 19.1% in 2010.

While the survey report showed high poverty and hunger incidence last year, it also pointed out the record-high ratings achieved by the Aquino administration during the same period.

The Aquino government posted a positive 56 net satisfaction rating which is much higher than its predecessors.

“The trust rating of the president is extremely high, it is not normal for a president to maintain a positive trust rating after one and a half year of service,” said Fr. Eliseo R. Mercado, executive director at the Institute for Autonomy and Governance, a panelist during the forum.