Manila (AsiaNews) – The food crisis in the Philippines is getting worse as soaring prices of food and raw materials make matters worse, the Social Weather Station (SWS), an independent research institution, reported today in a study it released today.
“Households reporting that their families experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months rose to an [. . .] estimated 2.9 million families,” the study said. The “increase was significant as the number of those saying they frequently had nothing to eat’ also rose.
The survey was conduced from June 27 to June 30 and covered 1,200 household heads nationwide.
Heads of household were asked whether “In the past three months, was there an instance when your family experienced hunger or had nothing to eat? If yes, did it happen only once, a few times, often, or always?”, and about 16.3 per cent said yes, a result above a ten-year average with respect to the first quarter of 2008 when it was at 15.7 per cent. The historical high for this period was 21.5 per cent, recorded in September 2007, and the 10-year average is 12.1 per cent.
For the government overpopulation is the cause and for this reason it has been promoting family planning. By contrast, the Catholic Church has pointed the finger at inadequate policies in favour of economic and social development.
The proposed bills pending in the House of Representatives are “morally unacceptable,” said Cagayan de Oro Archbishop Antonio J. Ledesma, former vice-president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines because they promote population control methods that include abortion.
For him the task of the Church is to educate the “social and moral conscience” of the public on how to address the issues of hunger and poverty that afflict a large segment of the population.
