MANILA – A new OCTA Research survey found that fewer Filipino families rated themselves poor and hungry in the first quarter of 2024.

According to the Tugon ng Masa survey conducted from March 11 to 14, 2024, the country's self-rated poverty is at 42 percent, which is 3-percent lower compared to 45 percent recorded in a similar survey held in the fourth quarter of 2023.

MANILA – The administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is doubling efforts to attain its single-digit poverty rate target by 2028. In his first State of the Nation Address in 2022, President Marcos vowed to bring down poverty to as low as 9 percent by the end of his term.

Latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed that the country's poverty rate already declined to 22.4 percent in the first half of 2023 from 23.7 percent in the same period in 2021.

The Philippines and its roughly 117,000,000 people have struggled with income inequality for generations. Even as infrastructure and opportunity has improved in highly populated areas in recent decades, poverty in the Philippines, particularly for people living in remote areas, remains a serious issue.

Recently inaugurated President Ferdinand Marcos Jr aims to slash the poverty rate to 9% by the end of his single six-year term in 2028 - a target that remains achievable despite soaring inflation, according to Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

Despite experiencing domestic and external challenges, the Philippines has made remarkable strides in reducing poverty levels between 2021 and 2023, marking significant progress toward the governments ambitious target of reducing poverty incidence to a single-digit level by 2028, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

The increased cost-of-living crisis sparked by surging inflation last year, combined with the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, is continuing to push people in Asia and the Pacific into extreme poverty.

The country's poverty rate went down to 22.4 percent in the first half of the year from 23.7 percent in the same period in 2021.

Jose Toribio, a taxi driver in Manila, is up at five in the morning. He makes his cup of coffee and eats some pandesal, or salt bread, known as the “poor man’s bread” for being a cheap staple in the Philippines.

Policies that support employment and workers, raise education quality and improve access, boost rural development, and strengthen social protection can reduce inequality, thus enhancing Filipino peoples’ chances for improving their well-being.