Firewood for sale

Maricel Bagonbon, 34 and a single parent of three, ties firewood that she sells near their house on stilts in a swamp area in Dipolog City, Mindanao on December 23, 2023. She said she needs to do odd jobs to be able to meet their family food requirements. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, 2 out of 10 or 25.44 million Filipinos were poor in the first half of 2023 and the subsistence incidence says 9.79 million persons can’t buy their basic food needs. Meanwhile, a Social Weather Stations survey covering the period Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 found that 48 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as poor, 25 percent said they were not poor and 27 percent rated themselves on the borderline. PHOTO BY JIMMY A DOMINGO