MORE FILIPINO FAMILIES
across the country experienced
involuntary hunger (hunger
due to lack of food) between
April and June than during the
first three months of the year, as a
recent Social Weather Stations
survey showed that,
Amid soaring food and fuel
prices, involuntary hunger in
Metro Manila rose to a record
high of more than one in every
five households.
A total of 16.3 percent of
families nationwide, equivalent
to 2.9 million households or
around 14.5 million people, experienced
involuntary hunger
at least once in the previous
quarter, up from the 15.7 percent
(2.8 million families) reported
in March.
The latest figure is 4 percentage
points higher than the 10-
year average hunger rate of
12.1 percent.

POPE Benedict XVI on Monday talked
with Australians who were sexually
abused as children by Roman
Catholic priests, but critics
said the meetings were too secretive
and denounced them as
a public relations stunt.

It was the second time in four
months that the Pontiff has met
with victims of clergy abuse, a
scandal that has blighted the
Catholic Church in recent years
and that Benedict has been
struggling to fix.