Palace on Filipinos seeing themselves as poor: Nakakalungkot

Malacañang on Tuesday assured the public that the government is doing its best to address the COVID-19 crisis after a November survey found nearly half of Filipino families considered themselves “poor.”

Palace spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. cited efforts to secure vaccines to inoculate millions of Filipinos.

“Ginagawa natin ang lahat para maibigay ang mga bakuna sa mga Pilipino, kahit ano pang halagang iyan at dahil alam natin na ito lang po ang tunay na solusyon sa pandemyang ito,” he told a news conference.

“At matapos po ang pandemya, lahat po tayo makakabalik na po tayo sa ating mga hanapbuhay at bababa po iyong kahirapan.”

In face-to-face interviews with 1,500 respondents conducted from November 21 to 25, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) found that 48% Filipino families categorized themselves as “poor,” 36% as “borderline poor” and 16% as “not poor.”

https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/news/nation/767985/48-of-pinoy-families-saw-themselves-as-poor-in-november-2020-sws/story/

“Nakakalungkot po talaga iyan at iyan ay epekto nang pagpatuloy na lockdown natin at quarantine dahil nga po sa pandemya,” Roque said.

“Ang Christmas gift na lang po na maibibigay natin sa lahat ay iyong pag-asa na matatapos na nga po itong pandemyang ito dahil nandiyan na ang bakuna.”

The country’s poverty incidence could worsen to 17.5 percent in 2021, according to Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua in September, citing the impact of the pandemic. -MDM, GMA News