Jamayka Rhose Pascual

Nearly 4.4 million Filipino families continue to face hunger, according to the latest survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released on June 27.


From April 23 to 28, SWS conducted face-to-face interviews with 1,500 adults nationwide and found that 20 percent of families experienced involuntary hunger, meaning they went hungry at least once and had no food available during that period.

This marks only a slight increase from 19.1 percent recorded in mid-April.

Of those affected, 16.4 percent reported experiencing hunger only once or a few times in the past three months, which SWS categorizes as moderate hunger.

Families who fall under this category often face short-term challenges such as sudden job loss, unstable income, or rising food prices that force them to skip meals.

Another 3.6 percent of families said they were starving often or always, a more severe form of hunger.

Among the four major regions, Mindanao recorded the highest hunger rate at 26.3 percent, with moderate hunger rising to 21.3 percent and severe hunger increasing to five percent.

Metro Manila followed at 20.3 percent, although it showed improvement as moderate hunger dropped from 19.7 percent to 14.3 percent, while severe hunger remained at six percent.

In the Visayas, 19.7 percent of families experienced hunger, with moderate hunger rising sharply from 11.7 percent to 18.3 percent and severe hunger declining from 2.7 percent to 1.3 percent.

Balance Luzon had the lowest hunger rate at 17 percent, with moderate hunger falling to 13.9 percent and severe hunger easing to 3.1 percent.

SWS surveyed 600 respondents in Balance Luzon and 300 each in Metro Manila, the Visayas, and Mindanao.

The survey has a national margin of error of ±3 percent and a margin of ±4 percent to ±6 percent for each region.