A GMA News report also said this period covers the last three months in office of former President Rodrigo Duterte, the SWS said.
Results of the June 26 to 29, 2022 national SWS survey on hunger showed that 11.6 percent of Filipino families, an estimated 2.9 million, experienced being hungry and not having anything to eat at least once in the past three months, the report said.
SWS said the hunger rate in June 2022 was 0.6 points below the 12.2 percent (estimated 3.1 million families) in April 2022, and 0.2 points below the 11.8 percent (estimated 3.0 million families) in December 2021.
This was however 1.6 points above the 10 percent (estimated 2.5 million families) in September 2021, GMA News reported.
It was also still 2.3 points above the pre-pandemic annual average of 9.3 in 2019, according to the survey firm, quoted by the report.
The SWS said hunger was experienced the highest by families in the National Capital Region (NCR) at 14.7 percent.
However, this hunger incidence in the region was “already a decline” by 3.9 points from 18.6 percent (estimated 636,000 families) in April to 14.7 percent (estimated 501,000 families) in June.
According to the SWS, hunger has been highest in Metro Manila in 24 out of 98 surveys since July 1998. This was followed by Mindanao at 14 percent, Balance Luzon at 11.9 percent, and Visayas at 5.7 percent, GMA News reported.
The hunger incidence also fell by 2.1 points in the Visayas from 7.8 percent (estimated 373,000 families) in April, to 5.7 percent (estimated 272,000 families) in June, the SWS reported.
The SWS further reported that of the 11.6 percent hunger rate in June 2022, 9.4 percent or some 2.4 million families experienced moderate hunger, while 2.1 percent or 546,000 families experienced severe hunger.
The SWS has defined people with moderate hunger as “those who experienced hunger only once or a few times in the last three months.”
Severe hunger is faced by those who experienced it “often” or “always” in the last three months, the SWS added.
The recent survey also found that 48 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as “mahirap” or poor, 31 percent as borderline poor, and 21 percent as “hindi mahirap” or not poor.
