Malacañang has associated the increase in the country’s hunger rate in September with the consecutive natural calamities that struck the Philippines.
Palace press officer Claire Castro remarked on Thursday in response to a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey, which reported that hunger in the country rose to 22.9 percent in September from 17.6 percent in June. ‘Let us not forget that our fellow citizens have experienced a series of calamities-this has affected the continuous efforts of our government, especially the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development), to lower the country’s hunger rate,’ she said, when asked for a reaction on the survey results.
‘Perhaps we are experiencing this because of the consecutive calamities-not just one, but a series of disasters that we’ve been going through one after another,’ she also said.
Castro described surveys on such issues as ‘helpful,’ saying they allow the government to compare and validate its own data.
She also emphasized that the government continues to work tirelessly to provide assistance to those in need.
Based on the SWS survey, conducted from Sept. 14 to 23, the increase in hunger rate was due to the nearly doubled figures in the Visayas and Mindanao.
The latest hunger rate is the highest since the record high of 30.7 percent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020.