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By Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
The Philippines ranked fifth in a
recent global hunger survey, with four in 10 poor Filipinos going
hungry in the last 12 months.
In its “Voice of the People”
survey, Gallup International said 40 percent of the Filipino
respondents were found to have experienced an empty stomach in late
2007 to the present.
The country landed in fifth place
out of the 55 countries worldwide surveyed.
The Gallup poll interviewed more
than 58,600 people between June and early September 2008, and the
survey represented the views of more than 1.5 billion global
citizens.
During the global survey period,
inflation in the Philippines surged to double digits, averaging
12.03 percent from June to September.
An earlier survey conducted by
the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed that 3.3 million Filipino
families were suffering from hunger in the last three quarters. The
survey was conducted from September 24 to 27, 2008.
The SWS said incidence of
moderate hunger, which refers to hunger experienced only once or a
few times in the last three months, increased from 12.1 percent or
2.2 million families in June to 15.2 percent or 2.7 million families
in September.
Severe hunger, which refers to
that experienced often or always in the covered period, decreased
from 4.2 percent or about 760,000 families in June to 3.2 percent or
about 580,000 families in September.
The SWS survey also found that
the hunger rate is highest in Metro Manila with 560,000 and lowest
in the Visayas, 420,000 families.
Poverty at 32.9 percent
The National Statistics
Coordination Board also earlier reported that the number of poor
Filipinos in 2006 stood at 27.6 million or 32.9 percent of the
population.
The 2006 figure represented an
increase of almost 4 million, compared to 2003 levels when the
number of poor Filipinos stood at 23.8 million.
The government had said that it
aims to reduce poverty incidence to between 17 percent and 20
percent by 2010.
The Gallup International survey
said 55 percent of respondents in Cameroon have suffered hunger,
followed by Pakistan with 53 percent and Nigeria, 48 percent.
The poll also found that
one-third of the population has not had enough to eat in Bolivia and
Guatemala, both with 35 percent, and Ghana, 32 percent.
Twenty-three percent of the
respondents in Mexico and Russia declared lacking food often or
sometimes in the last 12 months.
Meril James, the
secretary-general of Gallup International, said, “It is shocking
to see that still so many people don’t have enough to eat even in
the most developed regions.”
Two in 10 of the world citizens
surveyed or 19 percent declared to have lacked food often or
sometimes in the last 12 months.
Gallup International is
registered in Zurich as a verein (association). It was established
in 1947 and currently has member-agencies in 65 countries,
conducting market and opinion research in more than 100 countries.
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