Self-rated poverty higher in Q2

POVERTY increased in the second quarter with around half of Filipino families considering themselves poor, OCTA Research said on Tuesday.

Some 50 percent or an estimated 13.2 million households rated themselves as poor, OCTA’s July 2023 Tugon ng Masa Survey found.

This was up from the 43 percent or 11.3 million recorded three months earlier.

The increase was mainly due to surges in the Visayas and Mindanao, where 57 percent and 59 percent of families, respectively, said that they were poor, up from 37 percent and 45 percent previously.

Mindanao also had the highest percentage of adult Filipinos who considered their families poor, OCTA said, at 59 percent. The Visayas followed at 57 percent.

Majority of adult Filipinos (60 percent), meanwhile, believe that their state of poverty remained the same. The rate was the highest in Metro Manila at 70 percent.

Mindanao, on the other hand, had the highest percentage of adult Filipinos (27 percent) who think that their state of poverty had improved under the current government.

Meanwhile, the median amount for home expenses claimed by respondents as needed to be not poor was P20,000 per month. The median additional amount for a family in order not to be called poor anymore was P5,000 per month.

As for food poverty, 43 percent or an estimated 11.3 million Filipino families rated themselves “food poor,” slightly higher than the 41 percent recorded three months earlier.

Mindanao had the highest percentage of adult Filipinos who consider their families as food poor at 54 percent, followed by the Visayas at 44 percent and the rest of Luzon at 42 percent.

OCTA said that there was a significant increase in the number of self-rated food poor families in the Visayas, to 44 percent from 28 percent and in Mindanao (54 percent from 42 percent),

There was a decrease, on the other hand, in the National Capital Region to 23 percent from 34 percent.

Among those who said that they were food poor, the median amount said to be needed in order not to be called food poor was P10,000 per month. The median additional amount was P4,000 but OCTA also noted that 25 percent said they needed P5,000

Those who claimed to have experienced hunger during the second quarter came in at 15 percent or 3.9 million families, down slightly from about 16 percent three months earlier.

Visayas had the highest percentage at 19 percent, followed by Mindanao at 15 percent. Both the rest of Luzon and Metro Manila posted rates of 14 percent.

With regard to the state of hunger of the country under the Marcos administration, 59 percent believe that it remained the same, 22 percent said it had improved and 16 percent claimed that it worsened.

The OCTA survey, conducted last July 22-26, 2023 with 1,200 respondents nationwide, has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percent nationwide and plus or minus 6 percent for Metro Manila, the rest of Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao.