PR
No room for complacency despite lower hunger figures.
This stressed Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles in response to the recent Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showing only 16% of respondents have experienced involuntary hunger once in the past three months.
“This is a big improvement from past surveys. We will not be complacent, however. We are in fact encouraged to push further and work harder,” Nograles said.
The survey was conducted last November 21-25, 2020 with 1,500 respondents nationwide.
“The almost 15% drop in the figures, from 30.7% just last September, shows we are getting positive results in our efforts to combat poverty and hunger, even with the difficulties posed by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic,” the Cab Sec explained.
The Malacañang official expressed confidence that the food and nutrition outlook for Filipino families will improve as the programs of Task Force Hunger, which Nograles heads, roll out with increased regularity and with a wider scope of implementation.
“SWS’s numbers reflect the gains we’re increasingly having in our efforts to combat hunger and poverty. We of course do not obsess with these figures but they just show how the Duterte administration is steadily improving the lives of Filipino families, especially children who are most vulnerable during the health crisis,” the former legislator said.
Nograles emphasized that with the prospect of Covid-19 vaccines and an improving health situation brought by the government-imposed quarantines, the administration’s programs on food security will hopefully bring hunger figures down to pre-pandemic levels, which hovered at 8.8%.
