Poverty

MANILA, Philippines – At least half of Filipino families in the country believe they are poor, according to the latest self-rated poverty survey of independent pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS).

THE NUMBER of Filipino families that consider themselves poor has declined, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in a new report where it also noted self-rated food poverty gains. A May 24-27 survey, the results of which were made exclusive to BusinessWorld, found 51% of the respondents — equivalent to an estimated 10.3 million households…

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga – With the 6.4 percent economic growth in the first quarter of this year, the government plans to infuse an additional P9.02 billion for “priority poverty reduction projects.”

“The ‘self-rated’ poverty findings of survey entities that exist in super-abundance are subjective perception data that have limited usefulness for understanding factual conditions in the real world.”

The World Bank launched on Tuesday a program that seeks to assist policy-makers and other stakeholders engaged in poverty-reduction work.

When it rains it pours. After record-high poverty and hunger rates, here comes record-breaking adult unemployment rate. The Promised Land is fading fast, or at least, looming more distant than ever before. And unless the government of the day gets its act together and move much faster and bolder, this sad state of affairs is…

MANILA, Philippines – The number of Filipino families who consider themselves poor grew by two million in the last three months, a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has urged the Philippines and other countries in Asia to address rising income disparities and social exclusion as the region faces growing uncertainty due to decreasing export demands and devastating impacts of disasters.

VIEWED HISTORICALLY, the recent performance of the Philippine economy has actually been reassuring: Favorable trends include a declining public debt and fiscal deficit, recurring current account surpluses, low inflation, a healthy banking sector, and recent and forthcoming credit rating upgrades. Throughout the latest global economic shocks, remittances from oversees Filipino workers and revenues from the…

WASHINGTON – The World Bank (WB) has tagged the Philippines as a model in providing a social safety net that cushions the impact of global financial and economic problems.

IT has been 44 years since the late Nobel Lauriate Gunnar Myrdal finished his monumental 10-year study Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. That tome helped re-arrange the thinking of world leaders about poverty and in particular poverty in Asia. It boosted government policymakers in rich and poor countries alike, and in…

Cash transfers seem to be the way to go for the administration of Noynoy in winning the hearts of Filipinos. In principle, it works to allow the government to keep close tab of those who are availing of subsidies from the government. The conditional cash transfer (CCT) for the poorest Filipinos, for instance, is bankrolled…

MANILA, Philippines – The government plans to expand a landmark poverty alleviation scheme that provides cash aid to the country’s poorest households to benefit nearly 5 million families, an official said Tuesday.

THE GOVERNMENT plans to expand a landmark poverty alleviation scheme that provides cash aid to the country’s poorest households to benefit nearly five million families, a Cabinet official said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has partnered with five private firms for the implementation of sustainable livelihood programs for the beneficiaries of the government’s conditional cash transfer program.

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang conceded yesterday it would take time for any economic gains to trickle down the poor but stressed stop gap measures like the conditional cash transfer program and transport subsidy had been put in place to ensure the public could cope with higher prices of commodities and fuel.

Hundreds of millions of children in cities across the world are growing up in poverty and enduring deprivation, according to a report unveiled today by the United Nations, spotlighting social exclusion and calling for measures to give the youngsters access to basic services and opportunities for a better future.

MANILA, Philippines – Some 300,000 Filipino fishery workers “toil like slaves” in aquaculture farms and on commercial fishing vessels for pay below minimum wage. This was revealed during a recent four-day consultation-workshop with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UN-FAO) in Angeles, Pampanga.

THE economy’s poor showing bolsters arguments for revamping the government’s poverty-alleviation policies. President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd and his economic managers should abandon doles outs in favor of sustainable and dignified means of uplifting the lot of poor folk, such as creating jobs.

MANILA, Philippines – Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman downplayed yesterday the findings of the recent Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey which showed that hunger incidence in the country went up to 22.5 percent at the end of 2011.

MALACAÑANG on Tuesday announced that it has listed several programs that will directly solve hunger in the country. Deputy spokesman Abigail Valte said that results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey done in December showed that self-rated hunger was statistically identical to results of the September 2011 survey.

MANILA, Philippines – While the country’s poverty rate dropped at the end of 2011, the number of Filipinos who experienced hunger went up during the same period, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) said in its latest survey.

THE number of Filipinos who considered themselves poor has decreased, the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey revealed on Thursday. Results of the survey, which were first published in BusinessWorld, showed that 45 percent of the respondents — an estimated 9.1 million households — said that they were “poor.”

Last December 28, 2011, STAR’s Paolo Romero reported that UP (University of the Philippines) Assistant Professor Marivic Raquiza had questioned the prioritization and budget allocation that the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare and Development) has placed on the CCT (Conditional Cash Transfer) program, to the alleged detriment of the department’s other programs.

THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) had delisted 165,651 non-compliant, undeserving and unqualified beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino program, the Philippines’ conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, as of December 15 last year.

TO reduce poverty incidence to 16.6 percent and to meet key Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015, President Benigno Aquino 3rd provided the biggest funding support to poverty reduction and other social services under the 2012 national budget.

IT is not fair for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to overpay beneficiaries of its Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program because of the unsystematic database of the poor recipient families it has kept for the program, the Commission on Audit (COA) said.

WEAK government spending and political uncertainty are just some of the reasons why the Philippines has been outperformed by most of its Asian neighbors, a study sponsored by the International Monetary Fund showed.

Here’s the paradox of growth in this country. From 2003 to 2009, the economy grew by an average of 4.8 percent. And yet, instead of decreasing with economic growth, the number of poor Filipinos actually burgeoned from 19.8 million to 23.1 million.

So how is the Aquino administration addressing poverty? The National Anti-Poverty Commission presents its strategy here.) Synergy as strategy The depth of poverty in the Philippines will require efforts on a massive scale. A multidimensional approach grounded in economic growth and its distribution will therefore be needed to effectively reduce poverty.