The National Statistical Coordination Board released the poverty incidence report on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 through NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon Albert in a press conference.
Based upon the report, the country’s poverty incidence stood at 27.9% in ther first semester of 2012, virtually unchanged from the same period in 2006 and 2009. The report shows that 28 out of 100 Filipinos are currently living below the poverty line.
During the year 2009, poverty incidence stood at 28.6% and in 2006, 28.8%. According to Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, the poverty statistics were “not dramatic results that we wanted.”
The Philippine government considers a Filipino family poor if monthly earnings are less than the poverty threshold. During the first semester of 2012, poverty threshold for a family of 5 was at P5,458 per month to meet the basic food needs. That same family only required P1,681 in 2006 and P2,042 in 2009 to leave or separate themselves to the ranks of the poor.
The figures of poverty threshold will also increased if non-food needs will be included such as clothing, housing, transfortation, heald and education expenses, the cut-off in 2012 went up to P7,821 earnings per month.
Meanwhile here’s the highlights of the new Poverty Data from the NSCB:
- The poorest provinces now include Bukidnon, Cotabato, Ifugao, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato
- The Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) remained the poorest region in the Philippines with a poverty incidence of 46.9%. “Problems with peace & security played a substantial role in the increased poverty incidence in some provinces in Mindanao,” explained Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan
- The least poor provinces are within Luzon, with the addition of Ilocos Norte
- Income inequality persists in the Philipppines with the bottom 30% only accounting for 6% of the country’s national income
- Total income of top 20% families is 8 times the total income of bottom 20% families in the first half of 2012.
- The government’s budget for conditional cash transfer (CCT) anti-poverty program was only 25% of the required annual cost of eradicating poverty, according to Albert. “Without the CCT, the poverty numbers that we are seeing here could have been higher,” explained Balisacan
