NAPC blames higher poverty incidence on weather

from ABS CBN News

By DAVID DIZON
www.abs-cbnNEWS.com

The National Anti-Poverty Commission on Thursday said destructive weather in the past three months might have caused a slight increase in self-rated poverty incidence in the country as seen in the latest Social Weather Stations survey.

NAPC lead convenor Domingo Panganiban said at least five typhoons struck the Philippines in the latter part of 2006, destroying millions of pesos worth of agricultural lands and property.

Panganiban, the former agricultural secretary, said news that the El Niño phenomenon would hit the country this year led farmers to cut down on the number of crops to be planted until weather conditions improve.

"For example, in Bulacan, there are large hectares of land that are not being used because they are no longer planting crops. This is because there is a water shortage in the Angat River," he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

He said similar conditions were also felt in Leyte province in the Visayas and Misamis Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte and parts of Maguindanao in Mindanao.

Panganiban denied that the government was not doing enough to address the poverty situation. He said the boom in the business outsourcing sector and major infrastructure projects in two former US bases in Luzon have led to an uptick in jobs creation.

He added that the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority also provides livelihood and skills training to people.

In the latest SWS survey conducted last February 24 to 27, 53 percent of household heads rated their families as poor, up from the 52 percent recorded last November.

The survey showed self-rated poverty declining in Metro Manila but rising in the rest of the country. Self-rated poverty declined by 15 points in Metro Manila from 54 percent last November to 39 percent this February. On the other hand, self-rated poverty rose in Luzon from 48 percent to 53 percent, in the Visayas, from 55 percent to 59 percent, and in Mindanao, from 54 percent to 57 percent.

Panganiban credited the decrease in self-rated poverty incidence in Metro Manila to effective anti-poverty programs implemented by various city mayors.

"It's a collaborative effort by the different Metro Manila mayors. Manila Mayor Lito Atienza is doing a good job of helping the poor in the Baseco, Tondo. Other mayors such as [Quezon City Mayor Feliciano] Belmonte, Caloocan Mayor Enrico Echiverri and Marikina Mayor Marides Fernando are also doing their part," he said.

Lower living standards

SWS said the Self-Rated Poverty Threshold, which is the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor, has been sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation, indicating that poor families have been lowering their living standards.

The Median Self-Rated Poverty threshold of poor families declined in Metro Manila, from P12,000 last November to P10,000 in February – an amount that had already been reached in surveys as early as ten years ago.

The current median thresholds -- P6,000 in both Balance Luzon and the Visayas, and P5,000 in Mindanao -- had already been recorded as early as eight years ago, even though the cost of living has risen very greatly since then.

When referring specifically to the food they eat, 39 percent of Filipino families consider themselves as poor. This is defined as Self-Rated Food Poverty.

Twenty-six percent put themselves on the Food-Borderline, and 35 percent consider themselves as Not Food-Poor.

At the national level, Self-Rated Food Poverty hardly moved from 40 percent last November to 39 percent this February.

It declined by 14 points in Metro Manila, from 45 percent to 31 percent, but went up by five points in Mindanao, from 41 percent to 46 percent. Self-Rated Food Poverty barely changed in the rest of Luzon, from 37 percent to 38 percent, and in the Visayas, from 42 percent to 40 percent.

Household heads' reports about their own poverty in general, their own food-poverty, and their own hunger are internally consistent.

The February survey has hunger at 26 percent among the Self-Rated Poor. This is double the 13 percent among the Not Poor, and 9 percent among those on the Borderline.

Among the Self-Rated Food Poor, the proportion of households experiencing hunger in the past three months is 30 percent, almost triple the 12 percent in both the Not Food-Poor and the Food-Borderline.

As a concept, poverty allows for various degrees of deprivation. Those who suffer from hunger are much more deprived than those who simply suffer from poverty.