SWS: Hunger in Philippines worsens in September

(UPDATED) HUNGER incidence in the Philippines has continued to worsen in the past three months, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said Monday.

The September 2 to 5 survey showed that hunger incidence in the country has worsened to 15.7 percent or an estimated 3.5 million families experiencing "involuntary hunger" at least once in the past three months from 12.7 percent or 2.8 million families in June.

Around 14.1 percent of the respondents said they experienced "moderate hunger" (hungry only once or a few times), up by 3.3-percentage points from the 10.8 percent recorded in June.

Meanwhile, some 1.6 percent said they suffered "severe hunger" (often or always hungry), lower compared to 1.9 percent in June.

Malacanang vowed to continue to address poverty and hunger problem in the country until the end of the term of President Benigno Aquino III.

"So we continue to address the concerns...the causes for poverty and hunger, and we will do that until the end of our term," said Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda in a regular press briefing.

He said the government has continued to implement social intervention or poverty alleviation programs such as the conditional cash transfer program.

But despite the increase in the hunger incidence in September, Lacierda noted that in the long-term, the Aquino administration managed to bring this down.

"The highest recorded was in March of 2012 which is 23.18 (percent). Since then it has gone down to --- the lowest was in June of last quarter, June 2015 at 12.7 (percent); September 2015 at 15.7 (percent)," he said.

According to the survey, hunger incidence is more prevalent in Mindanao with 21.7 percent in September. It was the highest in two years as it rose by 7.4-percentage points from 14.3 percent in June.

In Metro Manila, hunger incidence stayed at 18.3 percent, the worst since the 22 percent recorded in September last year.

Hunger incidence in Visayas slipped by 2.4-percentage points, from 11.7 percent in June to 9.3 percent in September.

The survey used sampling error margins of ±3 percentage points for national percentages and ±6 percentage points each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. (With SDR/Sunnex)