Addressing poverty

Amid all the long-running state-funded dole-out programs for the poor, a survey conducted by pollster Social Weather Stations Inc. showed that self-rated poverty rose to 63 percent in December last year.

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The SWS noted that it was the highest in 21 years, or since the 64 percent recorded in November 2003.

In the survey conducted from Dec. 12 to 18 last year, about 10.2 percent of the respondents, translating into approximately 2.8 million Filipino families, rated themselves "newly poor" - meaning they considered themselves "non-poor" one to four years ago. Meanwhile, the "usually poor," who described themselves as "non-poor" five or more years ago, stood at 7.6 percent.