Fewer Filipinos felt involuntary hunger in 1st quarter of 2018 —SWS

An estimated 2.3 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the first quarter of 2018, the latest survey from the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The survey released on Monday showed that 9.9 percent or 2.3 million families experienced involuntary hunger at least once from January to March.

The SWS said the first quarter result was 6.0 points below the 15.9 percent quarterly hunger survey result in December 2017.

It added that the latest result was the "only second time hunger has been in the single-digit range since March 2004.

The pollster said the 9.9 percent quarterly hunger is the sum of 8.6 percent (3.6 million families) who experienced moderate hunger and 1.3 percent (306,000 families) who experienced severe hunger.

The SWS explained that moderate hunger means a family experienced hunger only once or a few times in the last three months and severe hunger means a family experienced hunger often or always in the first quarter of the year.

Those who did not state their frequency of hunger were classified under moderate hunger.

Malacañang, meanwhile, welcomed the results of the survey.

"Obviously, there's fewer perceiving themselves as hungry. Change has come," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said in a briefing.

The SWS said the 2018 first quarterly hunger survey was conducted from March 23 to 27 using face-to-face interviews with 1,200 adults, 300 each from Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

It said the survey has sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The pollster said that based on the survey, Metro Manila had the fewest families who felt hunger in the last three months at 6 percent (190,000 families).

In Mindanao, 7.3 percent felt hunger in the last three months while hunger at Visayas was at 13 percent and 11 percent in Balance Luzon. —Erwin Colcol/ALG, GMA News