Every other Pinoy family considers itself poor, says SWS

FIFTY-THREE percent of Filipino families consider themselves poor while a little less than 50 percent believe they are food-poor, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey from Sept. 18-21 showed.

These figures were taken before tropical storm "Ondoy" flooded Metro Manila, Central Luzon, and Southern Tagalog and typhoon "Pepeng" did the same to northern Luzon. Damage brought about by the two weather disturbances has reached P36 billion.

The survey polled 1,800 respondents and had an error margin range of plus/minus 2.3-6 percent.

SWS also found that 28 percent of Filipino families said they are on the borderline while only 20 percent claimed they are not poor.

The figure is 3 points higher than the 50 percent in June 2009. It has been at the 50 percent level since March 2008, except February 2009 when it was at 47 percent.

Similarly, the Self-Rated Food Poverty also rose to 41 percent from 39 percent in June. About 35 percent put themselves in the food-borderline while 24 percent said they are not food-poor.

Self-rated poverty dropped in Mindanao (62 percent to 57 percent), but it rose in Luzon (44 percent to 51 percent) and in the Visayas (56 percent to 60 percent). It barely changed in Metro Manila (42 percent to 41 percent).

Self-rated food poverty also declined in Mindanao (47 percent to 43 percent) but it went up in the Visayas (42 percent to 48 percent), in Metro Manila (32 percent to 35 percent), and in Luzon (35 percent to 38 percent).

SWS said poor families have been lowering their living standards or tightening their belts to cope with poverty, as shown by the sluggishness of the self-rated poverty threshold, or the monthly budget that families need in order not to consider themselves as poor.

As of September 2009, the threshold rose to P15,000 in Metro Manila and to P10,000 in Luzon, although these levels have already been reached in the past. It stayed at P5,000 in Mindanao while dipping in the Visayas from P8,000 to P5,000.

The food-poverty threshold also went up in Metro Manila from P5,000 to P6,500 and in Luzon from P3,000 to P5,000. It remained at P3,000 in Mindanao and dropped to P3,000 in the Visayas.

SWS said the P15,000 Metro Manila poverty threshold is equivalent to only P9,536 in base year 2000 purchasing power, after deflation by the Consumer Price Index. It said the deflated poverty threshold of below P10,000 per month is similar to living standards of over a decade ago.

The median food-poverty threshold of P6,500 in Metro Manila is equivalent to only P4,257 in base year 2000 purchasing power for food.

Sen. Loren Legarda criticized what she said was government’s "sugar-coated" statistics on poverty incidence.

"There is great disparity between the 53 percent of Filipinos who consider themselves poor in the latest Social Weather Station survey and the 32.9 percent of poor Filipinos as determined by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB)," she said.

Source: http://kakkampi.blogspot.com/2009/11/every-other-pinoy-family-considers.html