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By Rommel C. Lontayao Reporter
SOME 2.8 million Filipino
families, or 15.7 percent, experienced hunger at least once in this
year’s first quarter, a non-commissioned survey conducted by the
Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.
According to SWS, the latest
hunger figure has declined from 16.2 percent in the last quarter of
last year, but is “still four points above the 12-percent average
of hunger in 40 quarterly SWS surveys from mid-1998 to the
present.”
The recent survey found out that
53 percent are dissatisfied, while only 27 percent are satisfied
with the national government’s performance in its
hunger-mitigation projects.
The Arroyo administration
attained a negative net satisfaction rating of -26, declining by 4
points from -22, in SWS’s December 2007 poll.
The SWS report noted that
“dissatisfaction has always dominated the issue on ensuring that
no family will be hungry since SWS first surveyed it in August 2005,
when the net satisfaction rating was -31, and reached a record low
of -34 in March 2006.”
Hunger rose by two points in
Balance Luzon; fell by three points in Metro Manila; and declined by
two points in the Visayas and in Mindanao.
SWS, that conducted the survey on
March 28 to 31, said “the measure of hunger refers to involuntary
suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that
specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat.”
Severe hunger, or the level of
experiencing it “often” or “always” in the last three
months, went from 3.3 percent in December to 3.2 percent in March.
Severe hunger figures declined by
almost three points in Mindanao, and one point in Metro Manila. It
went up, however, in Balance Luzon, from 2.3 percent to 3.7 percent;
and slightly rose in the Visayas, from 1.0 percent to 1.3 percent.
On the other hand, moderate
hunger, referring to those who experienced it “only once” or
“a few times” in the last three months, declined from 12.9
percent in December to 12.5 percent in March.
Moderate hunger went down in
Metro Manila, from 12.7 percent to 10.3, and in the Visayas, from
13.3 percent to 11.0 percent. It rose slightly in Balance Luzon,
from 11.7 percent to 12.3 percent; and in Mindanao, from 15.0
percent to 15.3 percent.
The latest SWS survey on
household hunger and public satisfaction with the national
administration on fighting hunger was conducted using face-to-face
interviews of 1,200 statistically representative household heads
with a margin of error of +/- 3 percent for national percentages,
and +/- 6 percent for regional percentages.
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