NSCB Data Validates Philippines’s Worsening Poverty Situation

Poverty incidence could actually be higher, says think-tank

The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) report that poverty in the country worsened in 2006 only proves that the claim of Malacañang of an improving economy is false, said independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

It also validates the research group’s findings that poverty in the country is actually worsening for the past seven years.

According to the NSCB, 32.9% of the population, or 27.6 million Filipinos, are poor, nearly three percentage points higher than the 30% reported in 2003. This was computed using an annual poverty threshold of P15,057.

But says IBON executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman, “The poverty incidence could actually be worse than reported due to such low poverty threshold.”

Using official figures, a Filipino needs just P41.25 a day to meet his or her food and non-food basic requirements and stay out of poverty, a figure that is obviously insufficient for all but basic subsistence needs. “In fact, poverty in the Philippines could be so widespread that the NSCB is using these low threshold figures to understate the actual extent of poverty,” says Guzman.

In the IBON’s self-rated poverty survey conducted last January, 7 1.7% Filipinos considered themselves poor.

The NSCB data is not the only evidence that validates the growing poverty in the country. Images of poverty still pervade the daily lives of millions of Filipinos, as shown by other government statistics.

Real wages in the country (taking inflation into account with 2000 as the base year) have actually fallen from P340.80 in 2001 to P141.97 in 2007.

Even worse, the daily minimum wage in the NCR of P362 is just 40% of the estimated family living wage of P806 (as of December 2007).

Further, according to the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, the country’s poorest families (some 13.9 million) found themselves with less income than in 2001. The situation is worse for the poorest 5.2 million households who remain mired in debt, with an average of P1,700 debt per household in 2006.

Inequality also remained severe in 2006, as the richest 20% of Filipino families (3.5 million) accounted for 52.8% of total family income, while the poorest 80% (13.9 million) had to share the remaining 47.3 percent. The income of the richest 10% of Filipino households was equivalent to 19 times that of the poorest 10 percent. (end)

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.