MANILA — Malacañang said on Thursday it will validate findings of an OCTA Research survey showing a rise in self-rated hunger in the second quarter of this year.
Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro also noted what she said seemed like a mismatch with a separate Social Weather Stations survey on the government's food stamp program.
OCTA reported that about 21 percent, or an estimated 5.5 million families, experienced involuntary hunger — being hungry and having no food at least once in the past three months — in July 2026.
This is higher than the 17 percent recorded in March 2026.
“Aalamin po natin kung saan po nanggagaling ang mga areas na maaaring nagsasabi na nakakaranas sila ng kagutuman,” Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a briefing on Thursday, August 20.
(We will find out where those who reported hunger are.)
Castro believes there is a mismatch between the OCTA results and an SWS survey commissioned by Globe, that showed that the number of beneficiaries of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Walang Gutom Program who experience hunger dropped to 26.9 percent from 33.6 percent.
“Well, anyway tinanong ko po kasi ito sa SWS since sila po ay medyo accurate iyong kanilang numero dahil mismong diretso sila doon sa mga taong nakaranas noong programa ng pangulo na Walang Gutom Program,” she said.
(Well, anyway, I asked SWS about this since their numbers are accurate since they went to the people who experienced the president's Walang Gutom Program.)
“Pero tinanong ko rin kapag kasi in general at random iyong mga respondents na malamang ay hindi alam iyong programa or hindi nila naramdaman, so maiiba talaga ang numero. So, most probably baka doon nanggagaling iyong difference ng dalawang resulta, most probably,” Castro added.
(But I still asked because in general the respondents who probably don't know about the program or haven't felt it, so there really will be different figures. So, most probably, that is where the difference in the two results, most probably.)
9.2 million Filipino households see themselves as poor — OCTA survey
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