IN THE second quarter of 2017, 44 percent, or 10.1 million Filipinos consider themselves poor, according to the latest survey by Social Weather Stations (SWS).
The survey conducted from June 23 to 26 interviewed 1,200 adult respondents, using sampling error margins of ±3 percentage points for national percentages and ±6 percentage points each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.
The survey found that the number of families considering themselves poor in the past three months was six-percentage points lower than the 50 percent, or an estimated of 11.5 million families recorded last March.
The SWS noted a significant drop in self-rated poverty in Manila and Luzon, with eight-percentage points and 16-percentage points decline, respectively. It, however, also noticed an increase of seven-percentage points and four-percentage points in Mindanao.
The self-rated poverty in Manila declined at 28 percent from 36 percent last March, while Luzon received a self-rated poverty of 34 percent from 50 percent in the first quarter.
In Visayas, it increased to 64 percent from 57 percent in March. Mindanao obtained a self-rated poverty of 57 percent from 53 percent in March.
The study also revealed that 32 percent, or 7.3 million families, considered the type of food they eat as poor, three-percentage points below the 25 percent, or 8.1 families last March.
The self-rated poverty threshold was at P6,000 a month. The families said they are short of the threshold by P2,500.
In Metro Manila, the self-rated food poverty dropped by four-percentage points, to 16 percent from 20 percent in March.
The self-rated food poverty in Luzon declined to 27 percent, 14-percentage points lower than 41 percent in the previous quarter.
It increased by 10-percentage points in Visayas (44 percent) and six percentage-points in Mindanao (41 percent).
Sought for his reaction, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the government welcomed the poll results.
"These are significant. These are very, very significant – drops. And we’d like to believe that President Duterte’s administration has been able to deliver goods that had been neglected or slow in the past. And so we attribute that to decisiveness, and that would be some of the features of his Sona," he told Palace reporters. (SunStar Philippines)