MANILA — One of the pressing issues that the Aquino administration faces is the widening rich-poor gap in the country, said research group IBON.
The income gap in the latest 2006 government data shows that the share of the top 10% families in the income pie was even higher at 36% than the 35% share of the bottom 70% families. In …

A noted Filipino agriculture scientist says the country’s salvation from hunger comes in the form of the lowly seed.
In an article to be published later this month, Dr. Calixto M. Protacio, a US-trained professor of agronomy …

With the worsening crisis of the US and global economy expected to further aggravate poverty in the country, independent think-tank IBON Foundation today said that it has become more crucial for government to ensure enough resources are spent for the poor.

By Claire Delfin |  Mary Grace Pulido, 17, is from Ermita. She was born there, grew up there, and lives there. She even found her man there. Her life is on the street.

Across Asia, millions of people are pouring into crowded and often unmanageable urban areas in search of a better life. To some, particularly those who are tasked with running cities, these denizens of the “informal sector” represent a social and planning nightmare.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has launched Strategy 2020, a new long-term strategy for its vision of an Asia and Pacific region free of poverty.
To fight poverty in a region of more than 600 million poor people surviving on $1 a day, Strategy 2020 will refocus ADB operations on three development agendas—inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth, …

The World Bank said growth in the Philippines will slow down to 5.9 this year. It expressed concern that the strong performance last year (7.9 percent GDP) has not reduced poverty. (Read the report’s executive summary, introduction and the Philippine section.)

Below is the Philippine section in the World Bank’s “East Asia & Pacific Update” released April 2, 1008.

PHILIPPINES
Despite domestic political tensions and increased market volatility, the Philippine economy performed unusually well in 2007—ending the year with its highest growth in three decades, benign inflation, a strong balance of payment position and an improving public sector fiscal situation. Notwithstanding this performance, …

SPECIAL REPORT | By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano | Reliance on money from Filipinos overseas hasn’t helped the country get out of the poverty rut. In fact, according to an economist, remittances may be contributing to the persistence of high inequality in the Philippines.