MANILA, Philippines - Nearly four of every five Filipinos see themselves as poor, according to a survey conducted last April by militant think tank IBON Foundation.
IBON, which released the results of the survey Wednesday night, said this was an increase over the number of Filipinos who saw themselves as poor only three months earlier.
IBON's April 2008 survey showed that 79.33 percent of 1,495 respondents considered themselves poor, an increase from 71.66 percent in January 2008.
Respondents were asked the question, "When you look at your situation today, do you think of yourself as poor?"
Of the 1,495 respondents, 1,186 (79.33 percent) saw themselves as poor, compared to 1,077 (71.66 percent) in January 2008.
In contrast, only 236 (15.79 percent) said they did not see themselves as poor, compared to 269 (17.90 percent) in January.
Some 68 (4.55 percent) said they do not know compared to 141 (9.38 percent) last January; while five (0.33 percent) did not answer, compared to 16 (1.06 percent) last January.
"The latest IBON survey was conducted across various sectors nationwide from April 7 to 16, 2008 using a multi-stage probability sampling scheme with a margin of error of plus or minus three percent," IBON said. - GMANews.TV