More than half of Filipinos could not purchase basic necessities in March amid the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, which forced the government to impose community lockdown, according to a research by comparison platform Finder.com.
Finder says 58 percent of respondents surveyed were unable to purchase basic necessities in the past month. “That’s an estimated 39.8 million Filipinos who were unable to buy items like food, medicine, toilet paper and hand sanitizer,” it says.
Finder says the results were based on a survey it conducted among 2,021 Filipino adults from March 16 to 18.
The study shows that fresh food products are the hardest to come by, with 27 percent of Filipinos unable to make a purchase. “With most local wet and dry markets being ordered by local governments to close down, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise,” it says.
Meanwhile, more than one-quarter of Filipinos (26 percent) were unable to buy hand sanitizer and soap, it said. More than a fifth of Filipinos (22 percent) say they couldn’t buy medicine.
The survey says other products that people couldn’t buy include dry food (17 percent), toilet paper (16 percent) and other toiletries (14 percent). “Hopefully, the stricter shopping guidelines set by the Department of Trade and Industry will help abate these difficulties,” it says.
Among the age groups, Finder’s survey reveals that Filipinos aged 45 to 54 are having the hardest time buying necessities. About three in five of Filipinos (61 percent) in this age bracket couldn’t purchase at least one of the items included in the survey. Those aged 25 to 34 are a close second (60 percent), followed by those aged 35 to 44 (58 percent).
“In terms of gender, more women [59 percent] found it harder to make a purchase compared to men [55 percent]. In fact, women were consistently more likely to face trouble at the shops across all product categories,” it says.
The gap widened for medicine, with 26 percent of women saying they couldn’t buy medicine compared to just 18 percent of men—a difference of eight percentage points. However, the gap was less significant for other products like dry food, hand sanitizer and fresh food.
Finder ran the same survey in six countries including the United States, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Hong Kong and the Philippines.
The Philippines recorded the highest number of people unable to buy essential goods (58 percent), followed closely by the United States and South Africa (56 percent each). Of the six countries, those living in Hong Kong are least likely to report being unable to buy what they need (43 percent).
Nearly one in three North Americans have been unable to buy toilet paper, suggesting it’s a popular item to panic buy in the region.
Over a third of South Africans say they’ve been unable to buy hand sanitizer in the last month (37 percent), the most of any country in the study. Nearly a third of Americans reported the same (32 percent), followed by Canadians and Irish (29 percent each).
About 18 percent of South Africans reported they were unable to buy dry food like rice. Filipinos were the next most likely to report the same (17 percent), followed by Americans and Canadians (15 percent each).
Those living in the Philippines had the most difficulty buying fresh food, with 27 percent reporting they’ve been unable to buy fresh food in the last month. South Africans were the next most likely to report being unable to buy fresh food (21 percent), followed by North Americans (18 percent for Canadians and 17 percent for Americans).
One in five Filipinos (22 percent) have been unable to buy medicine in the last month, the most of any country included in the survey.