Philippines Trails In Poverty

from the Manila Times

By Chino S. Leyco Reporter

Social and economic development in the Philippines remains uneven and poverty continues to be characterized by widespread disparities across regions and population groups, a recent United Nations country team report said.

The report was presented last week to the Philippine Development Forum in Clark, Pampanga.

Compared with other East Asian and Southeast Asian neighbors, the report said, poverty reduction in the country has lagged far behind that of Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and China—countries that started with higher levels of poverty incidence than the Philippines but have successfully managed to lessen, if not virtually eliminate, extreme poverty.

According to the country team report, there were 27.6 million poor Filipinos in 2006, a 3.8-million increase from the 2003 data. Government statistics showed that the country’s population stood at 86 million as of 2007.

The highest poverty incidences, estimated at four times that of Metro Manila and accounting for one-third of the country’s total poor, are found in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Min­danao (ARMM), Bicol, Eastern Visayas and Western Mindanao.

“Poverty continues to be a rural phenomenon,” the UN report said. It added that two out of every three Filipinos live in rural areas and are dependent on agriculture.

“Poverty incidence among agricultural communities is roughly three times that of the rest of the population and the sector accounts for 60 percent of total poverty,” the country team report said.

Because of rural poverty, the report added, migration to urban areas has made the Philippines the fastest urbanizing country in Southeast Asia, with 55 million of its 86-million population, or 64 percent, living in urban areas. Thirty percent of the 64 percent live in slums.

As rural poverty incidence remains higher in absolute terms, the UN report said, urban poverty incidence increased from 17.9 percent in 1997 to 24.9 percent in 2003. Rural poverty incidence declined from 44.4 percent to 35.3 percent during the same period.