Poverty level hardly changed in 6 years

On the average, 28 out of 100 Filipinos live in poverty ,unchanged for the past six years. This translates to 26 million very poor Filipinos. “The poverty rate would have been higher if not for the implementation of the conditional cash transfer program,” NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan said.

Despite the Philippine economy’s stellar performance last year which earned recognition from different international agencies, the poverty picture in the first half of 2012 remained practically unchanged from conditions prevailing in 2009 and 2006, new data from the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) indicate.

NSCB yesterday reported that the country’s poverty incidence in the first semester of 2012 was 27.9 percent.

With the projected population for 2010 at 94 million, the poverty rate translates to about 26.2 million Filipinos.

“On the average, 28 out of 100 Filipinos were living in poverty between the first semester of 2006 and first semester of 2012,” the NSCB said.

“Comparing this with the 2006 and 2009 first semester figures estimated at 28.8 percent and 28.6 percent, respectively, poverty remained unchanged as the computed differences are not statistically significant,” NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon Albert said. “The poverty rate would have been higher if not for the implementation of the conditional cash transfer program,” National Economic and Development Authority Director General Arsenio Balisacan said.

“Although this first semester result on poverty incidence is not the dramatic result we wanted, we remain hopeful that the next rounds of poverty statistics will give much better results that will reflect the government’s massive investment in human development and poverty reduction,” Balisacan said.

Albert said that in the first half of 2012, a Filipino family of five needed P5,458 per month to buy their basic food needs. The same family needed P7,821 in monthly income to support both basic food and non-food needs, such as clothing, housing, transportation, and health and education expenses.

The country’s subsistence incidence, which represents the portion of the population in “extreme poverty”, was 13.4 percent in the first half of 2012, virtually the same as the 13.3 percent and 14.2 percent registered in 2009 and 2006, respectively.

NSCB said that on the average, a poor family of five members needed an additional monthly income of P2,292 to move out of poverty.

Poverty incidence among Filipino families in January to June last year was 22.3 percent, almost the same as the 22.9 percent registered in 2009 and 23.4 percent in 2006, NSCB said.

“This suggests that the strong economic growth in 2010 and 2012 were not enough to extricate a lot of people from the poverty trap,” Benjamin Diokno, UP economist, said.

Subsistence incidence among families, on the other hand, was 10 percent in both the first semester of 2012 and 2009, while it was 10.8 percent in the same period 2006.

“Clearly economic growth has not trickled down effectively to lower income classes. Growth has to be more inclusive and more Filipinos have to participate productively in economic activities,” Cid Terosa, economist at the University of Asia and the Pacific, said.

“The poverty rate remains high because too few jobs are being created despite the (economy’s) growth,” Victor Abola, who is also an economist at the UA&P, said.

“The main reason for this is the peso appreciation, which favors foreign goods and resources, versus domestically produced goods and resources. As domestic firms become less profitable and less competitive, they will not be hiring people,” Abola added.

NSCB estimates that the total cost of poverty eradication in the first half of 2012 was P79.7 billion.

“During the first semester of 2006, 2009, and 2012, the bottom 20 percent of families had a share of about 6 percent of the total income in the country, whereas the upper 20 percent had a share of nearly 50 percent of total income,” Albert said.

“The total income of the top 20 percent of families is approximately eight times the total income of the bottom 20 percent of families in the first semesters of 2006, 2009, and 2012,” he added.

Albert said that some of the positive events which transpired between the first semester of 2009 and 2012 include the increase in salaries of government employees with the full implementation of the Salary Standardization Law III, the increase in the number of household beneficiaries under the conditional cash transfer program, and the sponsored program of the National Health Insurance Program.

On the other hand, some negative events which happened during the same period are the calamities which hit several areas in the country, such as Mina, Pedring, and Sendong, with estimated costs of damage at P2.1 billion, P15.5 billion, and P1.7 billion, respectively.

An earthquake which also hit Negros Oriental in February last year had an estimated cost of damage of P383.1 million, while the low pressure area in the first quarter of 2012 resulted to damage of P129.5 million.

“We are serious about the fight against poverty and we are mindful of our commitments to the millennium development goals, but most especially, the Social Contract of the President with the Filipino people,” Balisacan said.

“As a researcher of development, I know that these problems take some time to be resolved. But now that I wear a government hat and join my fellow public servants here in forwarding the inclusive development agenda, I cannot help but be impatient about delivering results,” the NEDA chief added. –ANGELA CELIS, Businessmirror