Hunger rises to 22.6% in Q3 – SWS

Results of the Sept. 21 to 27 survey released Wednesday showed that 22.6 percent of respondents experienced being hungry and having nothing to eat at least once in the past three months.

KJ Rosales

MANILA, Philippines — More Filipinos experienced involuntary hunger in the third quarter of the year, according to a Social Weather Stations survey.

Results of the Sept. 21 to 27 survey released Wednesday showed that 22.6 percent of respondents experienced being hungry and having nothing to eat at least once in the past three months.

It went up slightly from 20.3 percent in June, but still below the 23.2 percent in March.

The latest hunger rate comprises 16.2 percent of respondents who said their families experienced moderate hunger (from 15.8 percent) and 6.4 percent who experienced severe hunger (from 4.5 percent).

Moderate hunger is experienced “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, while severe hunger is “often” or “always” in the last three months.

Across areas, the September hunger rate was highest among respondents in Metro Manila at 27 percent (from 21 percent), followed by those in Mindanao at 23.7 percent (from 24 percent), rest of Luzon at 23.6 percent (from 17.3 percent) and the Visayas at 16 percent (from 22.3 percent).

Involuntary hunger increased among poor households, from 24.5 percent to 27.9 percent and from 29.9 percent, while it was steady among not poor or borderline poor respondents, from 16.1 percent to 16.2 percent.