THE number of Filipinos who experienced hunger for the past three months increased but President Benigno Aquino could not believe the figures, saying the reports he was getting from government agencies was the opposite.

The survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations from March 4 to 7 showed that the number of people who went hungry at least once in the past three months grew from 15.9 percent last September to 20.5 percent, or an estimated 4.1 million families. The SWS conducted face-to-face interviews of 1,200 people in Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

The survey also showed that 51 percent considered themselves poor, also up from the 48 percent who rated themselves poor in September.

The President however was incredulous and said the survey results do not reflect the true  hunger and poverty incidence in the country.

Aquino said the conditional cash transfer program being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development helped thousands of Filipinos and it is likely that the beneficiaries were not “captured” by the survey.

The Aquino government increased the funding for the CCT program to P21 billion this year from P10 billion in 2010.

“Minsan hindi ko rin ma-reconcile yan. As I understand if you read the survey more thoroughly, parang ang bulk of the data comes from the NCR and balance Luzon, yung CCT unfortunately, yung 400,000 na idinagdag, bulk nun ay sa Visayas at Mindanao,” the President said.

“Nagkataon na sa statistical sample na ginamit, eh hindi na-capture yung natulungan ng CCT. So kung reverse naman du’n kung du’n ang bulto eh magiging skewed ang resulta dahil  sasabihin na ang laki ng nagsabi na na-alleviate sila sa hunger,” he said.

The President asked DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman to reconcile the figures, adding that even the Department of Labor reported an increase in job creation.

He said at least 1.3 million families were added to the list of beneficiaries of the CCT program and the focus is in Visayas and Mindanao where the highest rate of hunger was posted.   With AFP