‘Calamities lead to more poor children’

MANILA, Philippines – A government think tank worries that the series of natural and economic calamities that visited the country last year has led to an increase in poor children that it now estimates to be higher than the 2006 estimate of 12.8 million. It did not give any dimension of the rise.

The statement is from the policy note “Child Poverty In The Philippines: More Children Suffer As Poverty Rises,” released by state-owned Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). It was authored by PIDS senior research fellow Dr. Celia   Reyes and supervising research specialist Aubrey Tabuga.

“Given the recent calamities, the food- and fuel-price shocks and the global financial crisis, it is expected that poverty among the general population, in general, and children, in particular, will further increase. This will be true not just for income poverty but for other dimensions, as well,” said the authors.

“A well-designed, well-targeted and sustainable social-protection system that can mitigate the impact of crises and calamities, and not just ad-hoc temporary assistance, should therefore be put in place,” they urged, observing that in times of difficulty due to poverty, crises and calamities, children, who are among the most vulnerable groups, suffer the most.

They also noted as “an alarming trend” in data on poverty that the poverty rate increased to nearly 33% in 2006 from 30% in 2003, a reversal of the downward trend in poverty during the 1985-to- 2000 period.

Further, the authors added the 2.9-percent increase in the percentage of the poor is equivalent to about 4 million additional poor people. This brings the total to roughly 27.6 million in 2006.

“With increased income poverty, children immediately suffer the consequences in terms of nutritional and health conditions, as well as schooling. This is because unlike adults, children are still in certain developmental stages where proper nourishment is necessary, and are most vulnerable to diseases.”

“Any reduction in income greatly affects the sustenance of their nutritional and health status. The same is true with their schooling, which becomes adversely affected as family resources become depleted.”

Poverty, the authors said, is more concentrated in rural areas. Of the 12.8 million estimated poor children in 2006, some 9.2 million are in rural areas, which means the poverty situation in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and in Metro Manila must be addressed differently.

Based on official data, the study stated Metro Manila has the largest number of children considered informal settlers at 382,510, about 170,000 higher than the 2003 estimate, showing a 6-percentage-point increase. In 2006 1 out of 10 children in the metropolis are in squatter communities.

On the other hand, a large proportion of the number of children without access to electricity come from the Bicol region, Western Visayas and ARMM. In ARMM, some 5 out of 10 children have no access to electricity. “This justifies the need for more focused interventions to address spatial disparities.” –Cai U. Ordinario, Business Mirror Reporter