March hunger rate soars to 27.2%, highest since pandemic - SWS

Metro Manila, Philippines - Around 27.2 percent of Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in March, the highest figure since the pandemic, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) and think tank Stratbase found in a survey.

In February, the SWS said the figure in February was at 21.2 percent. The record high was 30.7% in September 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The 6.0-point rise in hunger between February 2025 and March 2025 was due to increases in the Visayas, Balance Luzon, and Mindanao, combined with a steady score in Metro Manila,” the pollster said on Saturday, March 29.

Involuntary hunger means being hungry and not having anything to eat. The SWS asked respondents if their families have felt it at least once in the past three months.

The rates by area were:

Metro Manila - 28.3 percent from February’s 27.3 percent

Balance Luzon - 24 percent from February’s 19.1 percent

Visayas - 33.7 percent from February’s 20 percent

Mindanao - 27.3 percent from February’s 23.3 percent

According to the SWS, the March hunger rate was the sum of 21% of families experiencing hunger only once or a few times, and 6.2% rate for those who experienced it often or always.

Asked for Malacañang’s reaction on Monday, Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro cited the programs of the Department of Social Welfare and Development to fight hunger, including food aid to 300,000 food-poor households.

“Aaralin po natin kung saan nanggaling ‘yong sinasabi na nagugutom pa ang ibang kababayan natin para malaman natin kung saang lugar ito at kung meron mang pagkukulang, maibsan natin yong mga ganitong klaseng sitwasyon,” Castro said in a news briefing.

[Translation: We will look into what they say households experiencing hunger to know where they were located and if there were shortcomings, we can address those.]

Trade Secretary Cristina Aldeguer-Roque said the Department of Trade and Industry assured the public it is doing its mandate of enforcing and monitoring prices of basic goods.

“Nung nakausap din namin ni Secretary Roque ‘yung mga nagtitinda ng baboy, ng isda, ng bigas, sabi nila mas malakas ang bili ngayon ng consumer dahil bumaba nga ‘yung presyo ng bigas,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. also said in a chance interview during a joint market inspection with his DTI counterpart.

[Translation: Vendors of pork, fish, and rice told us consumers now could buy more as the prices of rice have gone down.]

The Department of Agriculture has implemented various programs to introduce cheap options of rice, a major commodity in the Philippines.

The Stratbase-SWS March 2025 National Survey asked 1,800 registered voters nationwide through face-to-face interviews from March 15 to 20.

“The sampling error margins are ±2.31% for national percentages, ±3.27% for Balance Luzon, and ±5.66% each for Metro Manila, the Visayas and Mindanao,” the SWS said.

“The SWS survey questions on the family’s experience of Hunger were directed to household heads from July 1998 to December 2024 or earlier, and to registered voters from January 2025 to March 2025,” the pollster said. “These items are non-commissioned and are included on SWS’s initiative and released as a public service.”