With my work requiring me to move around, I get the chance to talk to cab drivers a lot. Like most of us, our cab drivers are working hard to survive on a daily basis. Taxi drivers these days earn around 100 to 300 pesos a day. With the increasing fuel prices, a 24-hour cab driver spends like 1500 in fuel alone. Upon return of the taxi to its owner, he also has to pay a boundary of 1000 pesos. If you'll factor in his meal, that would be an additional 100 to 150 pesos a day.

In total, a cab driver should earn a minimum of 2600 to 2800 a day to cover his work expenses. With the traffic and low number of taxi passengers, as a result of higher taxi rates, the net income of a taxi driver if they are lucky will be from 100 to 300 pesos within a straight 24 hours time. Gone are the days when they could earn as much as 1000 a day.

Most taxi drivers in the country belong to the poverty segment of our society. They are the ones who also don't have social security and other traditional benefits that typical employees get. A lot got old with this as their main profession. One cab driver related that because of the low income in order to save on milk, he would grind rice and boil it to make an "am", mix it with milk. As a result, his one box of milk for his child would last up to two weeks.

So next time you have to take a cab and have a little spare, don't hesitate to tip higher than usual. You are helping your fellow Filipino who is working hard to live honestly and survive these hard times.

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The people�s current economic situation continues to be very serious, with hunger rising to 15.5%, and Self-Rated Poverty at 49%, according to the Social Weather Survey of August 26-September 5, 2005.

Hunger rises to 15.5%
Household heads reporting that their families experienced hunger, without having anything to eat, at least once in the past three months, rose to 15.5% in August 2005  or an estimated 2.6 million families  from 12.0% in May 2005.  This is the second highest national proportion since SWS began surveying it in 1998, after the record high 16.1% in March 2001.

Hunger as of August 2005 is at 18.0% in Balance Luzon, 16.7% in the National Capital Region, 13.3% in the Visayas, and 12.0% in Mindanao.

The hunger proportion has been at double-digits for six successive quarters, raising the 1998-2005 average hunger to 10.4%.

Severe Hunger, defined as families who went hungry Often or Always in the last three months, was at 2.6% in August 2005  over 400,000 families  from 2.9% in May 2005.

Moderate Hunger, defined as those who experienced it Once or A Few Times in the last three months, went to 12.9% in August 2005  about 2.1 million families  from 9.2% in May 2005.

Compared to May 2005, Severe Hunger rose in Metro Manila, while Moderate Hunger rose across location.  

Self-Rated Poverty
The proportion of household heads reporting themselves as Mahirap went to 49% in August 2005, from 57% in May 2005.

The Self-Rated Poor is at 52% in the National Capital Region, 44% in the Balance of Luzon, and 55% in the Visayas, all of which are lower than last May.

Self-Rated Poverty stayed at 52% in Mindanao.
The median self-rated poverty threshold, or the median monthly budget in peso-terms that poor households say they need to escape poverty, went to P12,000 in Metro Manila in August 2005, from P10,000 in May.

Compared to May 2005, the median self-rated poverty threshold stayed at P7,000 in the Balance of Luzon, P6,000 in the Visayas, and P5,000 in Mindanao.

Such money-value thresholds were already reached as early as 5 years ago, even though the cost of living rose greatly every year.  The failure of the thresholds to increase despite so much inflation is a sign that the poor are actually lowering their real living standards.

Survey Background
The Social Weather Survey of August 2005 used face-to-face interviews of a national sample of 1,200 statistically representative households divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao (sampling error margins of �3% for national percentages and �6% for area percentages).

The SWS survey questions about household poverty and hunger are directed to the household head. They are standard non-commissioned items in the Social Weather Surveys. The quarterly Social Weather Surveys constitute the world�s most rapid statistical system for directly measuring poverty and hunger at the national level.

SWS confidentially provides its economic indicators on an advance basis to the proper government authorities, as a public service.  SWS strongly recommends that analysts integrate these indicators with factors such as agricultural production, food distribution, social welfare operations, wages, cost of living, unemployment, etc. in order to learn how to prolong favorable trends, and how to prevent unfavorable spikes, in poverty and hunger.