MANILA, Philippines — Nearly half of Filipino families considered themselves poor during the last months of the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, according to a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations.

The poll conducted from June 26 to 29 found 48% of Filipino families rating themselves as poor, up from 43% in April.

The June survey also showed that 31% of households considered themselves borderline poor, while 21% felt they are not poor. In April, 34% of Filipino families rated themselves borderline poor, and 23% rated themselves not poor.

“The estimated numbers of self-rated poor families are 12.2 million in June 2022 and 10.9 million in April 2022,” SWS said.

According to the polling firm, the five-point rise in the nationwide self-rated poor was due to the increases in Visayas and Metro Manila. Self-rated poor rose to 64% from 48% in Visayas, to 41% from 32% in Metro Manila, to 62% from 60% in Mindanao, and 36% from 35% in other parts of Luzon.

34% of families feel food-poor

The SWS survey also found 34% of families rating themselves as food-poor. Meanwhile, 40% rated themselves as borderline food-poor, and 26% considered themselves not food-poor.

The self-rated poverty is based on the type of food eaten by families.

Compared to April 22, the proportion of food-poor families increased from 31%, borderline food-poor families decreased from 45%, and not food-poor families rose slightly from 24%.

There were estimated 8.7 million food-poor families in June.

Self-rated food-poor increased to 31% from 25% in Metro Manila, to 28% from 24% in the rest of Luzon, and to 37% from 31% in Visayas. It fell to 45% from 49% in Mindanao.

‘Newly poor’

The survey also asked the self-rated poor if they ever experienced being non-poor—either not poor or borderline—in the past.

Of the estimated 12.2 million self-rated poor households in June, 2.2 million were newly poor, 1.6 million were usually poor, and 8.4 million were always poor.

Meanwhile, of the 13.3 million self-rated non-poor families in June, 5.3 million were newly non-poor, 3 million were usually non-poor, and 5 million were always non-poor.

The survey was conducted using face-to-face interviews of 1,500 adults. The sampling error margins are ±2.5% for national percentages, ±5.7% each for Metro Manila, Visayas, and Mindanao, and ±4.0% for Balance Luzon.