Malacañang on Thursday said government’s efforts to bring down prices and efficiently deliver basic services to the poor and marginalized are finally beginning to bear fruit after a recent poll showed that fewer Filipino families had experienced hunger in the first quarter of 2019.
While the Palace is “pleased” with the single-digit drop in the country’s hunger incidence in the March 2019 survey, it acknowledged that the government still has a long way to go in terms of poverty and hunger reduction.
“We are off to a good start. The Palace is pleased to note that Filipino families who said they had experienced hunger dropped to a single-digit 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2019, according to the survey. This is the second consecutive quarter where there has been a decrease in the national hunger incidence,” Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said.
Hunger rate in March 2019 is 1 percentage-point lower at 9.5 percent, or about 2.3 million families than the 10.5 percent, or about 2.4 million families, in December 2018.