War on Poverty Not Yet Over

A homeless girl takes shelter with her family and go about their daily routine under a bridge in Manila on Monday. According to the latest Social Weather Stations poll conducted last September, 12.2 million Filipinos families considered themselves poor.  Based on the survey, self-rated poverty in Metro Manila increased by six points to 43 percent, and by seven points to 52 percent in the rest of Luzon. However, self-rated poverty was down by 10 points to 61 percent in Mindanao and by nine points to 65 percent in the Visayas.During the same survey period, 43 percent of Filipino families or about 9.3 million households claimed they are “food-poor.” This is higher than the 41 percent, equivalent to 9 million households who claimed they are poor, three months ago. MB