No change in state of poverty under Noy

No change in state of poverty under Noy

Written by  Tribune
Wednesday, 24 April 2013 00:00

POOR-RICH INCOME GAP GROWS — NSCB

All of President Aquino’s hype about inclusive growth, stock market bull runs, and upgrade to investments level and even the Aquinomics principle of good governance is good business were punctured yesterday after the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) released a report showing poverty afflicts three of every 10 Filipinos, a situation that had not changed since 2006.

The government report measured poverty incidence or the proportion of people living below the poverty line to the total population showed an estimated 27.9 percent of the population earning barely enough for their basic needs such as food and shelter during the first half of last year.

“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,” according to the NSCB.

The income gap between the rich and the poor had also grown based on the government survey.

The total income of the top 20 percent of families is approximately eight times of the total income of the bottom 20 percent of families, according  to the NSCB.

The stagnant poverty figure was significant considering the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, which has been alloted P40 billion in this year’s budget, that supposedly targets the poorest Filipino families.

The report showed the Aquino government has failed to make headway in cutting rampant poverty despite the country’s economic growth.

Filipinos forced to live on less than P25 a day are considered poor based on the government’s poverty threshold.

Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said underemployment in rural areas, security problems in provinces facing insurgencies and warlords, and the falling price of a number of commodities such as sugar were mainly to blame.

“If the problem of visible underemployment in agriculture is addressed, then incomes of farmers would increase, poverty incidence would decrease, and we would not be compromising food security,” Balisacan said in a statement.

The nation of about 100 million people posted 6.6 percent economic growth last year, and this year obtained its first-ever investment-grade rating from Fitch Ratings.

However the January 2013 jobless rate stood at 7.1 percent, with a further 20.9 percent under-employed, or working fewer than 40 hours a week.

About 41.8 percent of the under-employed are in the farming sector, it said.

Norio Usui, Senior Country Economist for the Manila-based Asian Development Bank, said the government must solve the problem of jobless growth if it hopes to reduce poverty.

“I am not surprised at all. The benefits of strong economic growth have not spilled over to the people because they still cannot find a job,” he said.

He said the Philippines’ economic model depended on consumption, strong remittances from its large overseas workforce and the outsourcing industry, which employs highly educated workers.

However, the Philippines, with its weak industrial base, has stood out in the region, he added.

“Why do you need a strong industrial base? To give jobs not only to the highly educated college graduates, but also to high school graduates,” Usui said.

The government put the annual per capita poverty threshold at P9,385.

The state census board found that at least 28.6 percent of the population was considered poor in both 2006 and 2009.

The report showed in the first half of last year, a Filipino family of five should earn P5,458 to meet basic food needs every month and P7,821 to stay above the poverty threshold and afford them basic food and non-food needs every month.

According to the report, the subsistence incidence, which represents the proportion of Filipino families in extreme poverty, was estimated at 10 percent during the first semester of 2012.

At 10 percent in the first semester of 2009 and 10.8 percent in the first half of 2006, the differences among these three figures remain statistically insignificant.

In terms of poverty incidence among families, the NSCB estimates a rate of 22.3 percent during the first semester of 2012, and 23.4 percent and 22.9 percent during the same periods in 2006 and 2009, respectively.

The NSCB estimates that it would cost the government P79.7 billion until the first semester of 2012 alone to pull out Filipinos below the poverty level against the budget of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for the CCT of P39.4 billion for the entire 2012.

Government data also showed the income gap in the first half of 2012 or the monthly income shortfall of a poor family was estimated P2,292 on the average for a family of five.

The NSCB said that in general, the poverty conditions in the 1st semester of 2012 appear to be unchanged from the 1st half of 2006 and 2009.

“During this period, the rate of increase in the average incomes of the bottom 10 percent and the bottom 30 percent is practically the same as the rise of food prices and overall prices, respectively,” it said.

During the same period, the rate of increase in the prices of food and average per capita income of the bottom 10 percent (as well as bottom 30 percent of families) is almost the same.#

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