The number of Filipinos who consider themselves poor hit a record low of 38 percent, the latest Social Weather Stations’ survey revealed on Tuesday, with the Palace assuring the public that the administration’s poverty reduction efforts remain on track.
In its survey, SWS said fewer Filipinos, or at least 9.5-million families in the first quarter of 2019, labeled themselves poor.
“This is 12 points below the 50 percent (est. 11.6 million) in December 2018, and four points below the previous record-low of 42 percent in September 2016 and March 2018,” the pollster said.
SWS reported that the new record-low Self-Rated Poverty score is “a continuing recovery from the 10-point rise within the first three quarters of 2018.”
The proportion of Self-Rated Poor families rose from 42 percent in March 2018, to 48 percent in June 2018, and 52 percent in Sep. 2018.It dipped by two points to 50 percent in December and fell to 38 percent in March 2019.
SWS said the 12-point decline in nationwide SRP in the first quarter of 2019 was due to decreases of 16 points in Balance Luzon, 12 points in Mindanao, six points in the Visayas, and two points in Metro Manila.
The same survey also found a new low 27 percent, which was estimated at 6.8 million, of Filipinos rating themselves as food-poor.
“This is seven points below the 34 percent [est. 7.9 million] in December 2018, and two points below the previous record-low of 29 percent,” SWS said.
The same survey also found out that 15.3 percent of Filipino families considered themselves newly out of poverty. SWS said the median SRP threshold or the monthly income households need is at least P10,000, so as not to label themselves poor.
Malacañang hailed the latest findings.
“We thank everyone from the President’s economic managers, as well as the members of the Human Development and Poverty Reduction Cabinet Cluster, to the social welfare officers and barangay health workers for tirelessly making a positive impact on the socioeconomic lives of our countrymen,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
“This, notwithstanding the divisive and destructive political propaganda war waged by the President’s critics and detractors during the campaign period for the midterm elections when the survey was conducted,” he added.
Panelo said the administration’s poverty reduction efforts “remain on track.”
“We aim to reduce poverty from 21.6 percent in 2015 to 14 percent in 2022, which is equivalent to lifting about six million Filipinos out of poverty by the end of the President’s term,” he said. “And we will grind daily to reach this goal.”
The SWS survey was conducted from March 28 to 31, using face-to-face interviews with 1,440 adults nationwide. It has sampling error margins of ±2.6 percent for national percentages, and ±5 percent each for Balance Luzon, Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.