11-M Pinoys living on $1 a day - IFRI

November 21, 2007  --  Got something to say?
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Poverty
MANILA - The International Food Policy Research Institute said in a study released early this month that some 11 million Filipinos are among the 1 billion people across the globe living on less than $1 a day, the threshold defined as extreme poverty by the United Nations.

Titled the Worlds Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger, the report said that among 119 developing countries in the study in 2003, the Philippines ranked 72nd, the highest among Southeast Asian nations included in the study.

IFRI said the Philippines had a Global Hunger Index (GHI) of 17.55, which indicates a serious problem in hunger. Belarus, a former member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, topped the list with a GHI of 1.59.
Earlier, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo expressed elation over the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey on self-rated poverty incidence which showed that fewer families rated themselves as poor this year compared to last year.
The President, in her opening statement at the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) and Export Development Council (EDC) meeting in Malacanang said the survey results reflected that the benefits of a growing economy are now trickling down to the grassroots. The common people are now feeling the benefits of a growing economy.

Malacanang officials bragged that the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) which showed that around nine million Filipino families (52 percent) consider themselves poor is proof that President Arroyo is better than the past four presidents in poverty reduction. At the same time, President Arroyo ordered the release of P1 billion for the poverty reduction program of the administration.

Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo, in a text message sent to reporters, said poverty levels during the then leadership of Corazon Cory Aquino in 1986, Fidel Ramos in 1992 and Joseph Estrada in 1998, were up, but under the Arroyo administration these are slowly being curbed.

Based on past self-rated poverty on SWS Web site, we will see that 52 percent is lower than year ago. Also, average rating under GMA (Mrs. Arroyos initials) is lowest among four presidents since Cory,” he said.
Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde echoed Saludos statement.

The news that 52 percent or some nine million families rated themselves poor today is welcome. It is one of the lowest self-rated poverty thresholds of this generation and it is happening under the Arroyo administration, he stressed.
The survey results found that 43%, or about 7.5 million Filipino families, considered themselves poor in terms of food. This self-rated food poverty was up from the 37-39% in the first two quarters of 2007.

The SWS Self-Rated Poverty surveys, conducted since 1985, asks household heads to point to where their families are on a card marked mahirap (poor)” on one side and di mahirap (not poor) on the other, with a line in between.
The third quarter survey was conducted over September 2-5, 2007 using face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adults divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the Balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

The sampling error margins were 3% for national percentages and 6% for area percentages.
The SWS said both the self-rated poverty threshold. the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in general, and the self-rated food poverty threshold, the monthly food budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in terms of food have been sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation.
This indicates that poor families have been lowering their living standards, i.e., tightening their belts,” the SWS said.
For poor households in particular, the median poverty threshold in Metro Manila was P10,000 in the September 2007 survey, despite having reached as much as P15,000 several times in the past.

In the Balance of Luzon, the threshold was P6,000; and in the Visayas and Mindanao, P5,000, the results showed.
The median food-poverty thresholds for poor households, meanwhile, was P4,500 in Metro Manila, and P3,000 in the other three study areas.

The SWS noted that in Metro Manila, both the food and total thresholds had considerably weakened against the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which rose by over 40% from the base year of 2000.

It said a declining poverty threshold, despite a rising cost of living, means Filipino households were lowering their living standards.

The September 2007 median poverty threshold of P10,000 per month in Metro Manila was equivalent to only P6,863 in base year 2000 purchasing power, the SWS said, a throwback to the living standards of 20 years ago.

In four SWS surveys in 2000, the base year of the CPI, the median poverty threshold for Metro Manila was already P10,000 per month, equivalent to P14,570 based on the September 2007 cost of living.

The difference of P14,570 to P10,000 = P4,570 between the thresholds of 2000 and September 2007, the SWS said, measures the extent of belt-tightening that took place.

The median food poverty threshold of P4,500 in Metro Manila, meanwhile, was said to be equivalent to only P3,373 in base year 2000 purchasing power, the second-lowest deflated food poverty threshold recorded after the P3,075 in the last quarter.

The SWS said household heads? ratings of their general poverty, food poverty, and experience of involuntary hunger were internally consistent. Among the self-rated food poor, the proportion of households experiencing hunger in the past three months was 31%, but only 14% in both the not food-poor and the food-borderline.

Severe hunger, referring to families who experienced hunger often or always in the last three months, was 4.7% among poor households, 4.9% among the not poor, and 1.7% among families on the borderline. It was 6.5% among the self-rated food poor, compared to 2.8% among the not food-poor, and 1.6% among those on the food-borderline.

Moderate hunger, referring to families who experienced hunger only once” or a few times in the last three months, is 23.5% among poor households, 9.7% among the not poor, and 12.3% among those on the borderline. It was 24.9% among the self-rated food poor, 11.1% among the not food-poor, and 12.9% among families on the food-borderline.

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