Saan aabot ang 18 pesos mo?

Ayon sa bagong labas na estatistika ng pamahalaan, kasya na daw pangluto ng isang kainan para sa isang tao.

Kaya kung altanghap, sapat na daw ang ₱55.80 na arawang budget. 

Ito ang tinatawag na daily food threshold ng isang Pinoy, ayon sa Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). 

Lampasan mo ito, at hindi ka na ituturing na “food poor.” 

According to the PSA, a family of five would need  ₱279 ( in 2021, when the study was made) to meet the minimum basic food needs a day. For three square meals. Or ₱93 per meal for five people.

Sa paniwala ng PSA, kung may  ₱93 ang pamilyang may limang miyembro, solb na ang kanilang pananghalian.

Buried in the PSA’s 2021 “National Poverty Statistics” report is its finding that a five-member family would need  ₱8,379 to meet its monthly minimum basic food needs.

I am fan of PSA reports, a devotee of their studies, a champion of their mandate, but this one I find hard to swallow.

Even if it was taken in 2021, a Nobel winner in kitchenomics would find it hard then to whip up a meal for five that would meet nutritional standards on a  ₱93 budget.

I do not know what sample meals were cooked by the PSA people in their test kitchens which prompted them to issue that food threshold cost.

Maybe the PSA would like to share their miracle recipe for the enlightenment of families who are having a hard time putting food on the table and making ends meet.

Even if that amount would be adjusted for inflation, in this era of  ₱400-a-kilo onions, I don’t think that ₱93 would be enough for one family super tipid meal.

Is it possible then that real hunger and poverty rates were higher than what were officially captured?

Hindi kaya mas mataas ang bilang ng GNP – Gutom na Pilipino – kesa doon sa PSA estimate na 6.55 million Filipinos?