SWS: Hunger hits 3.7 million families in past 3 months

MANILA, Philippines - The latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released yesterday showed that one in five Filipino families or about 3.7 million families have experienced hunger in the past three months.

The Second Quarter 2009 Social Weather Survey said those who had nothing to eat at least once in the last three months rose to 20.3 percent (estimated 3.7 million families) in June from 15.5 percent (estimated 2.9 million families) in the previous quarter.

The non-commissioned survey was released hours before President Arroyo delivered her ninth and last State of the Nation Address (SONA) at the House of Representatives.

SWS said the new figure on hunger is just three percentage points lower than the record-high 23.7 percent (or estimated 4.3 million families) in December 2008, and is eight percentage points above the 10-year average of 12.8 percent.

“Hunger has consistently been in double-digits for five years, since June 2004,” the SWS said.

It said the SWS measure of hunger refers to involuntary suffering because the respondents answer a survey question that specifies hunger due to lack of anything to eat.

SWS said the five-point rise in Overall Hunger between February and June 2009 resulted from a five-point increase in Moderate Hunger only.

Moderate Hunger went from 11.1 percent (estimated two million families) in February to 16 percent (estimated 2.9 million families) in June.

On the other hand, Severe Hunger went from 4.4 percent (estimated 810,000 families) in February to 4.3 percent (estimated 790,000) in June.