MANILA — Independent pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS) saw a decline in the number of Filipinos experiencing hunger in the second quarter of 2022.

SWS' latest survey, conducted from June 26-29, showed that 11.6 percent or 2.9 million Filipinos experienced hunger from April to June.

This is lower than 12.2 percent or 3.1 million in April 2022, and 11.8 percent or 3 million households in December 2021.

SWS defines hunger as involuntary or those which are not intended for diet.

"Ang gutom na pinag-uusapan dito ay involuntary hunger kung saan hindi ito yung gutom na dahil sila ang nag-diet o sadyang hindi kumakain, ang involuntary gutom either wala silang makain talaga o walang pambili," said Leo Laroza, SWS Communication and Information Technology director.

(The hunger we're talking about is involuntary hunger. This is not the hunger caused by diets. Involuntary hunger means they do not have food or they can't buy food.)

Of the 2.9 million families experiencing hunger, 2.4 million families are experiencing moderate hunger, or those experiencing hunger once or a few times in the past 3 months.

More than 500,000 families have experienced severe hunger, or those hungry most or all of the time.

Mercy Andi, a garbage collector in Barangay Central in Quezon City, said they still experience hunger most of the time.

"Minsan nangungutang kami ng bigas, noodles lang. Minsan 'yung mga tindahan hindi nagpapautang, marami kaming utang di kami nakakabayad," she said.

(Sometimes we would borrow rice and noodles at the store. Sometimes they don't allow us to loan food because we still have a lot of debt from them.)

SWS said the relatively smaller number may be attributed to more jobs as pandemic restrictions have eased over the past months.

"Ang percentage ng hunger ay directly related sa joblessness ng ating mga kababayan. Over the past quarter, marami na relaxation nung lockdown, 'yung ease of doing business and livelihood. We're seeing the recovery," Laroza added.

(The percentage of hunger is directly related to the joblessness of Filipinos. Over the last quarter, lockdowns have been relaxed, which boosted the ease of doing business and livelihood. We're seeing the recovery.)

But they also warn that inflation may have an effect on hunger in the next months.

The current level of hunger, however, is higher than the pre-pandemic levels, where the country only averaged 9.3 percent in 2019.

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