By Brian Campued
A research fellow has urged the national government to continue making long-term solutions in reducing poverty in the Philippines, following a record decline in Filipinos’ self-ratings for both poverty and food poverty.
Based on the latest Tugon ng Masa (TNM) survey conducted by OCTA Research on Dec. 3–11, 2025, self-rated poverty among adult Filipinos dropped to 37% during the 4th quarter of last year from 54% in the 3rd quarter.
This “largest single-quarter decline” in OCTA’s TNM series represents a 17% drop or equivalent to about 4.5 million families “no longer considering themselves as poor.”
“This is good news for the administration and good news for the Filipinos in general, showing na our lives are improving, bumubuti yung kabuhayan natin,” OCTA Research fellow Dr. Guido David said in an interview on Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon on Tuesday.
“So, sa [national] government, take this as a positive na we’re doing the right things right now, and continue to do the good things that we are doing… Also keep our eye on the ball, keep our eye on long-term solutions for the country to help our kababayans,” David added.
The same report likewise showed that self-rated food poverty dropped from 49% to 30% in the 4th quarter, equivalent to roughly 5 million families who are not food-poor during the said period.
“Hindi lang ‘yung self-rated poverty ‘yung bumaba, pati rin ‘yung self-rated food poverty, which means they have access to food. They consider themselves food-poor if they don’t have access to good food; hindi kabilang dito ‘yung kumakain lang ng junk food or scraps so kailangan quality food ‘yung kinakain nila,” David said.
The research fellow noted that the sharp decline in self-rated poverty and self-rated food poverty among Filipinos during the last quarter of 2025 can be attributed to government interventions aimed at improving the economic situations of the people.
“One factor siguro ‘yung continued efforts ng administration to distribute ayuda or assistance sa ating mga kababayan. The other factor, I believe, is that the inflation has stabilized,” he said.
Meanwhile, David called for better coordination between the national government and local government units to address regional disparity as Mindanao continued to post higher self-ratings for poverty and food poverty.
