OZAMIZ CITY: Poverty worsened from 2003 to 2006, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), and Misamis Occidental failed to loosen its grip as among the top ten provinces ranked as “poorest.”
In a press release entitled Poverty worsens between 2003 and 2006 and posted at the NSCB Web site, the official poverty statistics were based on the final results of the 2006 Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES), conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) every three years.
In the said report, poverty incidence in the country increased to 26.9 percent for families in 2006 compared to 24.4 percent in 2003.
This means that 27 out of 100 Filipinos were poor in 2006, compared to 24 in 2003
Poverty incidence refers to the proportion of families (or population) with per capita income less than the per capita poverty threshold to the total number of families (population).
The NSCB report noted that those considered poor are families of five individuals whose monthly incomes were below P6,274 in 2006.
The actual number of poor Filipino families went up by 16 percent, from four million in 2003 to 4.7 million in 2006.
The actual number of poor Filipinos increased from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006, or a 3.8 million increase in the number of poor people.
Also, from NSO statistics, it shows that the average monthly income of families in Region 10 is at P9,667 with an average expenditure of P7,917.
According to the latest government estimate, a Filipino family of five needed P6,274 per month, or P209 per day, to stay out of poverty. This means that each person needs P41.25 a day to survive.
Bask to the 2006 NSCB report, one of the five new entrants is Tawi-Tawi, the poorest province with 8 out of 10 families classified as poor.
Tawi-tawi slid to 31 in 2003 from being 8th in the 2000 report.
Provinces that remained among the 10 poorest from 2003 to 2006 were Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Surigao del Norte, Masbate and Misamis Occidental.
Zamboanga del Norte slid to second place in 2006 from being first in 2003, a notch higher than Misamis Occidental.
Consistent second placer in 2000 and 2003 rankings, Maguindanao now rests third place in the 2006 report.
Surigao is now fifth from its previous fourth rank in 2003 while Lanao del Sur is sixth in 2006 from being 25th in 2003 and was on the fifth slot in 2000.
Misamis Occidental, now tenth, is seventh in 2003 after it stood at 18 in 2000 and a way far at 21 in 1997, in line with Zamboanga del Norte and Maguindanao then. .
This province’s poverty incidence in 2000 is estimated at 46.8 percent, then increased to 48.1 percent in 2003 and stayed at 48.8 percent in 2006.
The current figure, if compared to that of 2003, would make MisOc in the top six and on the top 17 if compared to the 2000 figures base.
Comparing the poverty incidences among the five Mindanao provinces, Zamboanga del Norte decreased by 1.5 percent and Masbate by 4.9 while the other three have slight increase ranging from MisOc’s 0.7 percent to Maguindanao’s 1.6 percent.
Last Thursday, DXSY-AM reported its interview with DSWD Provincial Officer Rosindo Requina, who said that he was bothered with the recent results of the NCSB, although he admitted the report was from 2006.
Requina disclosed that based on the new surveys made by the NSO, the province has lifted itself out of the top ten poorest provinces.
It is also unfair, he added, to blame the recent attainment of the province to local officials since there are indications that the province have improved.
Neither blaming himself nor giving an excuse, Gov. Loreto Leo Ocampos said in a separate interview with DXDD-AM that he takes the NSCB report as a challenge.
“Hagit kini nato nga mga opisyales ug sa katawhan nga mohimo ug mga lakang nga moarang-arang ang kahimtang sa katawhan,” he said.
Ocampos added that the present position of the province could be true because of the lack of cooperation among the people in the programs of the government and partly, because of indolence.
“Naa man ta’y programa nga gitawag nato ug Food Always In The Home (FAITH), atong awhagon ang katawhan sa tibuok lalawigan nga mananom ug mga utanon, lagutmon ug mamuhi ug kahayopan aron makatabang sa inadlaw-adlaw nga budget,” he said.
“Daghan ta’g programa sa probinsiya nga nagkinahanglan sa pagtabang sa katawhan. Nakasiguro ko nga kung moabag lang ang katawhan mawala na ta sa ika-napulo,” Ocampos added.
Meanwhile, Senator Mar Roxas, in an email to this paper, said he laments the rising incidence of poverty as reported by the NSCB, has been exacerbated by the continued imposition of high taxes and the rise in oil prices.
“I urge the government to look at these statistics seriously and not brush off the issue by harping on the rising stock market and rising peso, which has also been hurting our exporters and dollar earning OFWs,” Roxas added.
The senator added that he has filed Senate Bill No. 1962, a bill which seeks suspension on the value-added tax (VAT) on oil products.
Roxas said this will provide relief to the people by reducing costs in the consumption of oil products, which are a necessity in the daily life of Filipinos. The measure would remove P4 of VAT per liter of diesel and P65 of each LPG tank.
“Maantig na sana ang pamahalaan sa araw-araw na hinaing ng taumbayan na dulot ng pagtaas ng presyo ng langis, at makita nilang hindi sapat ang ginagawa nito ngayon, na nauuwi lang sa “token-ism,” he said.
“Let’s push for real and relevant solutions to aid Filipinos and boost their weakened spending power,” Roxas said.
For his part, former World Bank president James Wolfensohn, said in a story by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) that he was “disappointed” over latest government figures.
“That, of course, for me as a former World Banker, is a challenging statistic to place before you, as this is the country where the difference between rich and poor is as high as almost anywhere in the world,” he said.
Given the bleak poverty figures, the government will not likely meet its target to reduce poverty incidence from 28 percent in 2004 to between 17-19 percent in 2010, the PDI reported.
In addition, the poverty incidence in the country is even worse than what the National Statistical Coordination Board has presented, militant think tank IBON Foundation said.
“The poverty incidence could actually be worse than reported due to such low poverty threshold,” Rosario Bella Guzman, IBON executive editor, said in a statement.
“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,” said Guzman.
She noted that in IBON’s self-rated poverty survey conducted last January, 71.7 percent Filipinos considered themselves poor.
Still, she said the latest NSCB figures confirm IBON’s findings that poverty in the country has worsened for the past seven years. MICHAEL MEDINA
In a press release entitled Poverty worsens between 2003 and 2006 and posted at the NSCB Web site, the official poverty statistics were based on the final results of the 2006 Family Income and Expenditures Survey (FIES), conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) every three years.
In the said report, poverty incidence in the country increased to 26.9 percent for families in 2006 compared to 24.4 percent in 2003.
This means that 27 out of 100 Filipinos were poor in 2006, compared to 24 in 2003
Poverty incidence refers to the proportion of families (or population) with per capita income less than the per capita poverty threshold to the total number of families (population).
The NSCB report noted that those considered poor are families of five individuals whose monthly incomes were below P6,274 in 2006.
The actual number of poor Filipino families went up by 16 percent, from four million in 2003 to 4.7 million in 2006.
The actual number of poor Filipinos increased from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006, or a 3.8 million increase in the number of poor people.
Also, from NSO statistics, it shows that the average monthly income of families in Region 10 is at P9,667 with an average expenditure of P7,917.
According to the latest government estimate, a Filipino family of five needed P6,274 per month, or P209 per day, to stay out of poverty. This means that each person needs P41.25 a day to survive.
Bask to the 2006 NSCB report, one of the five new entrants is Tawi-Tawi, the poorest province with 8 out of 10 families classified as poor.
Tawi-tawi slid to 31 in 2003 from being 8th in the 2000 report.
Provinces that remained among the 10 poorest from 2003 to 2006 were Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Surigao del Norte, Masbate and Misamis Occidental.
Zamboanga del Norte slid to second place in 2006 from being first in 2003, a notch higher than Misamis Occidental.
Consistent second placer in 2000 and 2003 rankings, Maguindanao now rests third place in the 2006 report.
Surigao is now fifth from its previous fourth rank in 2003 while Lanao del Sur is sixth in 2006 from being 25th in 2003 and was on the fifth slot in 2000.
Misamis Occidental, now tenth, is seventh in 2003 after it stood at 18 in 2000 and a way far at 21 in 1997, in line with Zamboanga del Norte and Maguindanao then. .
This province’s poverty incidence in 2000 is estimated at 46.8 percent, then increased to 48.1 percent in 2003 and stayed at 48.8 percent in 2006.
The current figure, if compared to that of 2003, would make MisOc in the top six and on the top 17 if compared to the 2000 figures base.
Comparing the poverty incidences among the five Mindanao provinces, Zamboanga del Norte decreased by 1.5 percent and Masbate by 4.9 while the other three have slight increase ranging from MisOc’s 0.7 percent to Maguindanao’s 1.6 percent.
Last Thursday, DXSY-AM reported its interview with DSWD Provincial Officer Rosindo Requina, who said that he was bothered with the recent results of the NCSB, although he admitted the report was from 2006.
Requina disclosed that based on the new surveys made by the NSO, the province has lifted itself out of the top ten poorest provinces.
It is also unfair, he added, to blame the recent attainment of the province to local officials since there are indications that the province have improved.
Neither blaming himself nor giving an excuse, Gov. Loreto Leo Ocampos said in a separate interview with DXDD-AM that he takes the NSCB report as a challenge.
“Hagit kini nato nga mga opisyales ug sa katawhan nga mohimo ug mga lakang nga moarang-arang ang kahimtang sa katawhan,” he said.
Ocampos added that the present position of the province could be true because of the lack of cooperation among the people in the programs of the government and partly, because of indolence.
“Naa man ta’y programa nga gitawag nato ug Food Always In The Home (FAITH), atong awhagon ang katawhan sa tibuok lalawigan nga mananom ug mga utanon, lagutmon ug mamuhi ug kahayopan aron makatabang sa inadlaw-adlaw nga budget,” he said.
“Daghan ta’g programa sa probinsiya nga nagkinahanglan sa pagtabang sa katawhan. Nakasiguro ko nga kung moabag lang ang katawhan mawala na ta sa ika-napulo,” Ocampos added.
Meanwhile, Senator Mar Roxas, in an email to this paper, said he laments the rising incidence of poverty as reported by the NSCB, has been exacerbated by the continued imposition of high taxes and the rise in oil prices.
“I urge the government to look at these statistics seriously and not brush off the issue by harping on the rising stock market and rising peso, which has also been hurting our exporters and dollar earning OFWs,” Roxas added.
The senator added that he has filed Senate Bill No. 1962, a bill which seeks suspension on the value-added tax (VAT) on oil products.
Roxas said this will provide relief to the people by reducing costs in the consumption of oil products, which are a necessity in the daily life of Filipinos. The measure would remove P4 of VAT per liter of diesel and P65 of each LPG tank.
“Maantig na sana ang pamahalaan sa araw-araw na hinaing ng taumbayan na dulot ng pagtaas ng presyo ng langis, at makita nilang hindi sapat ang ginagawa nito ngayon, na nauuwi lang sa “token-ism,” he said.
“Let’s push for real and relevant solutions to aid Filipinos and boost their weakened spending power,” Roxas said.
For his part, former World Bank president James Wolfensohn, said in a story by the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) that he was “disappointed” over latest government figures.
“That, of course, for me as a former World Banker, is a challenging statistic to place before you, as this is the country where the difference between rich and poor is as high as almost anywhere in the world,” he said.
Given the bleak poverty figures, the government will not likely meet its target to reduce poverty incidence from 28 percent in 2004 to between 17-19 percent in 2010, the PDI reported.
In addition, the poverty incidence in the country is even worse than what the National Statistical Coordination Board has presented, militant think tank IBON Foundation said.
“The poverty incidence could actually be worse than reported due to such low poverty threshold,” Rosario Bella Guzman, IBON executive editor, said in a statement.
“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,” said Guzman.
She noted that in IBON’s self-rated poverty survey conducted last January, 71.7 percent Filipinos considered themselves poor.
Still, she said the latest NSCB figures confirm IBON’s findings that poverty in the country has worsened for the past seven years. MICHAEL MEDINA