MANILA: More Filipinos went hungry in the last three months, with rates nearly doubling in the Visayas and Mindanao regions, according to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) poll done last September.
The survey found 22.9 per cent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger — 5.3 points higher than the previous poll last June and the highest since the 30.7 per cent figure in September 2020 at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The pollster defines “involuntary hunger” as “without having anything to eat.”
Of the 22.9 per cent nationwide, 16.8 per cent said they went through “moderate hunger” while 6.1 per cent said they experienced “severe hunger.”
SWS attributed the surge to the sharp increases in the Visayas from 13.7 per cent in June to 26.0 per cent in September and in Mindanao from 15.7 per cent in June to 30.7 per cent in September.
Meanwhile, hunger in Metro Manila rose slightly from 20.0 per cent in June to 21.7 per cent in September. However, hunger in the rest of Luzon dropped from 19.6 per cent in June to 18.1 per cent in September.
SWS conducted the survey using face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults nationwide from Sept 14 to 23, with a margin of plus or minus 2.5 per cent in sampling error.
Last Oct 9, the polling body found in another survey that 46 per cent of Filipinos described themselves as “food-poor” with 17 per cent as “food borderline.”
