FIFTY-THREE percent of respondents in a survey conducted by the Social Weather Station from Feb. 24 to 27 rated themselves as poor.

The level was marginally higher, but statistically insignificant, than the 52 percent recorded in the SWS survey in November last year.

There was a marked improvement in Metro Manila in self-rated poverty from 54 percent in November to 39 percent in February. But this was offset by a worsening in Luzon from 48 percent to 53 percent, in the Visayas from 55 percent to 59 percent, and in Mindanao from 54 percent to 57 percent.

The SWS said respondents apparently have been lowering their standard of what constitutes poverty.

The SWS said the median for self-rated poverty threshold in Metro Manila was P12,000 in November and only P10,000 in February.

The SWS survey on self-rated food poverty, which refers to the type or quality of food they eat, showed 39 percent considered themselves as "food-poor."

The survey said 26 percent said they were on the "food-borderline." Thirty-five percent said they are "not food-poor." – Jocelyn Montemayor