MALACANANG is not convinced by the result of a recent poverty survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showing an increase on figures of Filipinos who considered themselves poor.
The latest SWS survey showed a rise in self-rated poverty from 47 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to 54 percent in the last quarter.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Malacanang will look into the figures since a recent SWS survey also showed that hunger incidence has gone down.
"We are going to look into those numbers actually because in the same survey, it cites naman that hunger incidence also went down. So it is safe to assume that our experts will be looking at the numbers also just to see what is there-what the numbers reveal," she said.
“Since we are not the ones who conducted the survey, I can’t tell you why those numbers are the way they are. What we can do is just to look into them and see the relationship (of surveys),” she added.
Given the increase, Malacanang defended the effectiveness of the conditional transfer program in helping poor Filipino families.
“We have been going around. We make it a point to talk to the beneficiaries in provinces that are not part of (Metro) Manila or in some other cities and the feedback is almost usually the same -- na malaki ang nagiging tulong,” said Valte.
“Yung iba nga po nagdadala pa sila, pinapakita nila ‘yung sapatos ng mga anak nila bago sila maging part ‘nung CCT -- ‘yung pinupuntahan ‘nung cash grant na naibibigay po sa kanila -- and the beneficiaries are usually more than open to share their relationships,” she added.
The survey was conducted from December 8-11, 2012 through face-to-face interviews with 1,200 respondents.
Self-rated poverty increased nationwide except in the Visayas. The highest was in Mindanao with 72 percent (from 57 percent), followed by the Visayas (62 percent from 63 percent), rest of Luzon (43 percent to 38 percent), and Metro Manila (42 percent from 35 percent). (Jill Beltran/Sunnex)