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Edith Regalado
Philippine Star

DAVAO CITY — At least 14 of the country’s 20 poorest municipalities are in Mindanao, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

Data released by the NSCB XI here over the weekend showed that the town of Siayan in Zamboanga del Norte is the poorest in the country, with a poverty incidence of 97.46 percent.

The municipalities of Sominot, Tangcal, Midsalip, Bacungan, Jose Abad Santos, Godod, Lapuyan, San Luis and Poona Piagapo, all in Mindanao, also emerged as among the poorest.

The next poorest town is Tanudan in Kalinga in the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR), with a rate of 88.06 percent in poverty incidence.

The NSCB refers to poverty incidence as the proportion of population (or families) with per capita income less than the per capita poverty threshold to the total number of population (families) of an area.

It said six other poorest towns are in Northern Luzon and Western Samar in the Visayas, with three each.

In the country’s list of 20 poorest municipalities, aside from Siayan, are Sominot, Zamboanga del Sur, with poverty incidence of 87.54 percent; Tangcal, Lanao del Norte, 86.72 percent; Midsalip, Zamboanga del Sur, 86.32 percent; Bagulin, La Union, 85.50 percent; Bacungan, Zamboanga del Norte, 85.17 percent; Jose Abad Santos, Davao del Sur, 84.63 percent;

Godod, Zamboanga del Norte, 84.58 percent; Lapuyan, Zamboanga del Sur, 84.35 percent; San Luis, Agusan del Sur, 83.06 percent; Tinglayan, Kalinga, San Jose de Buan, Western Samar, 82.14 percent and 81.91 percent; Poona Piagapo, Lanao del Norte, 81.68 percent; Matuguinao, Western Samar, 81.35 percent; Don Marcelino, Davao del Sur, 80.75 percent; Zumarraga, Western Samar, 80.11 percent; La Paz, Agusan del Sur, 79.69 percent; Sarangani, Davao del Sur, 78.67 percent; and Talaingod, Davao del Norte with 78.56 percent poverty incidence.

The NSCB data also indicated that in Southern Mindanao, five of the poorest towns are in Davao del Sur. These are Jose Abad Santos, Don Marcelino, Sarangani. Malita and Sta. Maria rank sixth and seventh, respectively, on the list.

The towns of Talaingod in Davao del Norte and Laak in Compostela Valley, both placed fifth.

The towns of Manay, Tarragona and Caraga in Davao Oriental ranked eighth, ninth, and 10th, respectively, among the 10 poorest in Southern Mindanao.

But with all the poorest towns, Kidapawan City in North Cotabato emerged as Mindanao’s richest municipality, with only 12.46 percent poverty incidence.

Other areas that made it to the list of “Mindanao’s 10 richest municipalities” are General Santos City, with 13.98 percent poverty incidence; Polomolok, South Cotabato, 14.29; Davao City, 14.94 percent; Tagum City, 15.42 percent; Cagayan de Oro City, 15.50 percent; Koronadal City, 16.18 percent; Digos City, Davao del Sur, 18.22 percent; and the towns of Padada and Hagonoy, also in Davao del Sur, with 21.99 percent and 22.60 percent poverty incidence, respectively.

Connie Veneracion
Manila Standard

On Oct. 15, Blog Action Day (www.blogactionday.org) hopes to repeat the success of last year’s initiative to get people and media talking about the environment. This year, thousands of independent Web publishers will write about an even more controversial subject—poverty.

To be frank, I am already anticipating a barrage of essays condemning poverty as the most violent of murderers, subjecting millions to slow and painful death. But I have mixed feelings about anti-poverty campaigns. Most times, the people who are noisiest about helping the poor are the very people who seek to exploit poverty for their own personal agenda.

In 2004, the PhilHealth card was the medium to exploit the poor to win an election. In 1998, the simple thinking of poor folk was exploited to also win an election. The Catholic Church has been exploiting the ignorance of the poor for centuries to perpetuate its power. It’s even true of the common man who assuages his “guilt” by donating to this and that charitable organization regularly as if the act eradicates any possibility that he could be an indirect cause of other people’s poverty.

Poverty is not only a state of deprivation. It isn’t just about people who have less material comfort. It is also a battlecry and a political issue. Politicians and activists oversimplify things when they make a sweeping definition of poverty based on family income. Consider this. Juan and Juana are poor because they are uneducated and unable to get decent paying jobs. They are uneducated because they grew in a remote rural area where the nearest school was a two-hour trek each way and there were no high schools and colleges. Pedro and Petra are poor because Pedro spends a huge chunk of his income drinking with his buddies after work while Petra plays tong-its with her neighbors while her husband is at work.

When politicians and activists start citing statistics and mouthing rhetoric condemning poverty, whose poverty are they referring to? Is it fair that they do not make a distinction between the conditions of the two couples in the given examples and simply claim that both are victims of an exploitative society backed by a corrupt government? Do both deserve equal attention? Obviously, the answer is no. But the lack of distinction works for vested interests because the players create a bigger market for themselves. In other words, it has become fashionable for politicians and wannabe politicians (a lot of activists are wannabe politicians—just take note of how many of the media-visible “human rights” fighters end up running for seats in Congress) to use the issue of poverty without fully explaining what it is because it works to their advantage.

But these highly emotional public campaigns do not always work for the intended beneficiaries. Few realize how the politicization of poverty has hurt, rather than helped, a lot of truly poor people—and I am not just talking about the Philippines. Take Africa, for instance. World leaders and philanthropists visited and saw emaciated people suffering from various illnesses. They registered their shock and called on good-hearted souls to help. What happened? Pharmaceutical companies heeded their calls and, together, they embarked on a seemingly noble mission to rid Africa of disease.

But was that all that really happened? If you think that all those claims made in Le Carre’s “The Constant Gardener” are nothing but figments of the author’s fertile imagination, think again. In 2004, South African President Thabo Mbeki’s African National Congress struck at the US government for withholding criticisms against nevirapine which was distributed and used on South African babies to allegedly protect them from AIDS that might have been passed on by their mothers. The drug was previously tested in Uganda and a doctor from the National Institutes of Health (an agency under the US Department of Health and Human Services) altered his report to omit negative effects of the drug.

Isolated case? Heck, it’s not even the first. In 1996 when meningitis broke out in Nigeria, the first good soul to extend a helping hand was Pfizer. In what appeared to be a “humanitarian gesture,” Pfizer’s people administered Trovan to some 200 sick children without letting their parents know that Trovan was an unapproved drug and Pfizer was actually conducting tests. Some of these children did not survive the tests; others suffered from long-term side effects including paralysis.

And these are only some of the things that happen when poverty becomes a political issue. Politicians, businesses and even so-called humanitarian organizations start their posturing, exploiting the sordid condition of poor people so that they can turn a profit. Yes, money. Even winning an election or getting another five-year grant from funders translates to money.

The author blogs at http://houseonahill.net, http://pinoycook.net and http://www.sassylawyer.com

Doris Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines— The new poverty line for Asia-Pacific is $1.35 a day and about 23 million Filipinos, or 27 percent of the Philippine population, are living below it.

Using the regional poverty threshold of the Asian Development Bank, the Philippines is is next to Pakistan and worse than Vietnam when it comes to the percentage of its population living on less than $1.35 a day.

In a report released on Wednesday, the ADB offered a new way to gauge poverty incidence using price data specific to the Asia and Pacific region, and, critically, to the poor. The report was contained in a special chapter of Key Indicators 2008, its flagship annual statistical publication.

Using 2006 data, the ADB study estimated that about 27 percent of the Philippine population would have consumed less than the new Asian poverty line.

This new measure suggested a higher poverty incidence in the Philippines using the regional benchmark. Based on the $1-per day globally used threshold of extreme poverty, the ratio in the Philippines as of the previous estimate was lower at about 13.6 percent.

“This is a landmark study for two reasons,” ADB chief economist Ifzal Ali said in a statement. “For the first time, a thorough sensitivity analysis of internationally comparable poverty estimates has been carried out. Second, a poverty line that is relevant specifically to the Asia and Pacific region has been adopted.”

The ADB thus came up with the new poverty line of roughly $1.35 a day for the region.

The report showed that the ratio of the population consuming less than this amount each day was highest in India at 65.3 percent.

Other countries with high ratios living below the Asian poverty line were Nepal (59.2 percent), Bangladesh (58.2), Laos (48.8 percent), Mongolia (40 percent), Indonesia (39.2 percent) Cambodia (35.4 percent) and Pakistan (32 percent).

The Philippines’ ratio was worse than Vietnam’s 25.6 percent, Sri Lanka’s 18.4 percent and Thailand’s 0.1 percent.

The report estimated that in the 16 countries that participated in the study, 1.042 billion people would have been living below $1.35 a day in 2005.

“While the $1-a-day poverty line remains an appropriate benchmark for counting the extent of extreme poverty in Asia, and the developing world more generally, in a region that has witnessed rapid economic growth it might also be time to evaluate poverty incidence using a benchmark that reflects the region’s dynamism,” Ali said.

A major contribution of the report is to examine the sensitivity of poverty estimates to different methods for evaluating purchasing power parities (PPP) — or conversion factors that ensure a common purchasing power across countries over a given set of goods and services.

“PPPs are one of the most vital ingredients in generating internationally comparable estimates of poverty,” Ali said.

The report noted that the World Bank’s $1-a-day poverty estimates are based on PPPs developed for comparing household consumption across countries, known as consumption PPPs. From the perspective of poverty comparisons, however, it was considered more appropriate to use a set of PPPs that are based on comparisons of prices of goods and services that the poor purchase.

The report, using original data collected specifically for its study, examined where the poor shop, what they buy, in what quantity, as well as the quality of the products they purchase. The report noted, for example, a considerable difference in quality and price between packaged rice bought in a supermarket and rice bought by the scoop in a wet market — where the poor traditionally shop. The prices paid for the products purchased by the poor are used to generate a new set of PPPs, called poverty PPPs.

Poverty-specific PPPs were also computed using an International Comparison Program (ICP) price data with weights representing the expenditure patterns of the poor.

Even using this ICP measure, Filipinos living below the Asian poverty line were also estimated to be over 20 million.

“Our aim in this study was to shed light on how alternative approaches to compiling purchasing power parities can influence internationally comparable estimates of poverty,” Ali said.

“Clearly, the choice of PPP used matters a lot to the final estimates of poverty and it is therefore critical that we price the most appropriate set of goods and services. This report shows that the collection of poverty-specific prices — the feasibility of which has been demonstrated by 16 developing Asian countries — is possible,” he said.

Rommel C. Lontayao
Manila Times

The Social Weather Stations (SWS) said recent surveys showing increasing self-rated poverty levels among Filipino families has “wiped out” what President Gloria Arroyo claimed in her State of the Nation Address regarding the country’s improving poverty situation.

SWS released on Thursday results of its latest survey, which was not commissioned, showing that around six of 10 Filipino families, or about 10.6 million, consider themselves as poor.

The June 2008 survey also showed an increasing number of families rating themselves as poor. In March, only 50 percent, or about nine million, were rated poor.

According to the SWS report, “59 percent of Filipino families, or about 10.6 million, rate themselves as poor, 24 percent put themselves on the borderline, and 17 percent rate themselves as not poor.”

The new self-rated poverty rate is nine points higher than that recorded in the first quarter of 2008, and 13 points above the previous low of 46 percent, or 8.1 million, in December 2007.

SWS noted that the self-rated poverty rates have been soaring high, “thus wiping out the decline in self-rated poverty to its 20-year low in 2007 mentioned in President Gloria Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address [last Monday].”

Meanwhile, the June 2008 survey also found that 49 percent of Filipino families, or 8.8 million, consider themselves as food-poor, 26 percent put themselves on the food-borderline, and 25 percent consider themselves as not food-poor.

Like in the self-rated poverty survey, the self-rated food poverty figures are going up, with the latest figure being nine points higher than in March 2008, and 15 points above the all-time low of 34 percent in December 2007.

Whole country affected

SWS said the increase in self-rated poverty was “steepest in the Visayas” where the figures went up by 19 points, from 47 percent in March to 66 percent in June.

Self-rated poverty rose by nine points in Mindanao, from 59 percent to 68 percent; by seven points in Metro Manila, from 44 percent to 51 percent; and by five points in Balance Luzon, from 48 percent to 53 percent.

On the other hand, self-rated food poverty also rose “most sharply” in the Visayas, from 32 percent in March to 53 percent in June. It rose by eight points in Metro Manila, from 35 percent to 43 percent; by seven points in Mindanao, from 50 percent to 57 percent; and by five points in Balance Luzon, from 39 percent to 44 percent.

SWS also reported that “the self-rated poverty threshold, or the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in general, has been sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation.”

“This indicates that poor families have been lowering their living standards, [for example], belt-tightening,” the SWS added.

In Metro Manila for example, the median poverty threshold still stood at P10,000 as in 2000, even though the consumer price index has risen there by 57 percent since then.

The latest SWS survey was conducted from June 27 to 30, 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. Questions about the family’s poverty and food-poverty were directed to the household head. Margins of error are at plus or minus 3 percent for national percentages and plus or minus 6 percent for area percentages.

Helen Flores
Philippine Star

Some 10.6 million Filipino families now rate themselves as poor, according to a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS), which showed self-rated poverty on the rise since December 2007.

In a statement, SWS said the latest figure wiped out the decline in self-rated poverty “to its 20-year low in 2007” as announced by President Arroyo in her State of the Nation Address last July 28.

The non-commissioned survey, taken from June 27 to 30, found that 59 percent of Filipino families consider themselves poor, 24 percent put themselves on the borderline and 17 percent say they are not poor.

The Second Quarter 2008 Social Weather Survey used face-to-face interviews of 1,200 adult respondents divided into random samples of 300 each in Metro Manila, the balance of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

SWS said the new self-rated poverty rate is nine points higher than the 50 percent which SWS estimates at nine million families in the first quarter of 2008, and 13 points above the 46 percent (estimated 8.1 million) in December 2007.

SWS said the Visayas region suffered the “steepest” rise in self-rated poverty in the past three months.

“It rose by 19 points from 47 percent last March to 66 percent in June, returning to the level of September 2006,” SWS said.

The June 2008 survey also found that 49 percent of Filipino families or 8.8 million consider themselves “food-poor,” 26 percent put themselves on the “food-borderline,” and 25 percent consider themselves “not food-poor.”

SWS said the latest Self-Rated Food Poverty is nine points higher than the 40 percent (estimated 7.1 million) in March 2008, or 15 points above the all-time low of 34 percent (estimated 6.1 million) in December 2007.

Self-rated poverty rose by nine points in Mindanao from 59 percent to 68 percent; by seven points in Metro Manila from 44 percent to 51 percent; and by five points in balance Luzon from 48 percent to 53 percent.

It rose by 12 points in urban areas, from 43 percent to 55 percent, or much more sharply than the six-point increase in rural areas, from 58 percent to 64 percent, SWS said.

Self-rated food poverty also rose “most sharply” in the Visayas, from 32 percent in March to 53 percent in June, or by 21 points.

It rose by eight points in Metro Manila from 35 percent to 43 percent; by seven points in Mindanao from 50 percent to 57 percent; and five points in balance Luzon from 39 percent to 44 percent.

Meanwhile, the SWS said self-rated poverty threshold – or the monthly budget that poor households need in order not to consider themselves poor in general – has been sluggish for several years despite considerable inflation.

For poor households in particular, the median poverty threshold in Metro Manila is only P10,000 in the June 2008 survey, even though it had already reached as much as P15,000 several times in the past.

For those in balance Luzon, the median poverty threshold in June is P6,000, though it had already been at P10,000 before, SWS said.

The median poverty threshold of poor households is only P7,500 in the Visayas and P7,000 in Mindanao, but had also already reached P10,000 before in both areas, it said.

The median food-poverty thresholds for poor households in June 2008 are P5,000 in Metro Manila, P4,000 in balance Luzon, P4,300 in the Visayas, and P3,500 in Mindanao. These levels had already been reached several years ago, the SWS said.

In Metro Manila in particular, the median poverty threshold is still P10,000 as in 2000, even though the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has risen by 57 percent since, the SWS said.

The NCR median poverty threshold of P10,000 per month for June 2008 is equivalent to only P6,369 in base year 2000 purchasing power, after deflation by the CPI, SWS said.

“The deflated poverty threshold for NCR of below P7,000 per month is a throwback to living standards of 20 years ago,” it said.

The SWS survey has sampling error margins of plus or minus three percent for national percentages and plus or minus six percent for area percentages. The survey questions are directed to the household head.

The SWS survey results came a day after a poll by Pulse Asia, another independent survey firm, which showed 75 percent of Filipinos claiming they are “worse off” this year compared to 2007 as a result of soaring food and oil prices.

An official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday said the Pulse Asia survey aptly describes the condition of the country and the sentiments of the people.

“We cannot disagree with this findings. The economic conditions are more difficult nowadays compared to the previous years,” said Kalookan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez, who is also CBCP’s public affairs committee chairman.

Iniguez advised Malacañang to address the problem rather than doubt the veracity of the survey results which, he said, were conducted scientifically.

–  With Evelyn Macairan

Darwin G. Amojelar
Manila Times

THE World Bank wants the private sector to focus on the poor in developing countries such as the Philippines to bring them out of their misery.

“Addressing the unmet needs of the BoP [base of the economic pyramid] is essential to raising welfare, productivity, and income—to enabling BoP households to find their own route out of poverty,” the Washington-based lender said in a report titled, “Business and Poverty: Opening markets to the poor.”

The World Bank estimates the Philippines’ BoP market to number 23.6 million Filipinos with a combined purchasing power of $13.09 billion. In estimating the local BoP market, the multilateral lender used the 2000 Philippines Family Income and Expenditure Survey.

In Asia, the BoP market represents 83 percent of the region’s population and 42 percent of its purchasing power—a significant share of Asia’s rapidly growing consumer market.

The report said engaging the BoP in the formal economy must be a critical part of any wealth-generating and inclusive growth strategy.

“Many of those in the BoP, and perhaps most, pay higher prices for basic goods and services than do wealthier consumers—either in cash or in the effort they must expend to obtain them—and they often receive lower quality as well,” the World Bank said.

“For some services BoP consumers lack access altogether. The high cost of being poor is widely shared: it is not just the very poor who must walk long distances for water or firewood, or who often pay more for the transportation to reach a distant hospital or clinic for the treatment, or who face exorbitant fees for loans or for transfers from relatives abroad,” it added.

The report said the BoP market analysis is intended to help businesses and governments think more creatively about new products and services that meet this sector’s needs.

Globally, about four billion people who live in relative poverty have purchasing power representing a $5-trillion market. The BoP market in Thailand stood at $23.38 billion; Vietnam, $16.03 billion; Malaysia, $16.27 billion; and Indonesia, $6.17 billion.

by Tony Lopez
from The Manila Times

Under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the rich became richer, the poor became poorer. Not only that, those who were marginally rich crossed the line toward poverty.

All these happened under seven years or 29 quarters of robust, consecutive and sustained economic growth, averaging more than 5 percent per quarter and 5 percent per year. This is the longest economic expansion in the country’s history. This makes Arroyo our best president.

How and why did this paradox happen? The answer lies in government’s capacity for dictating the growth and direction of the economy with its policies and pump-priming efforts.

GMA’s economic policies benefited mostly the rich. In 2007, the market capitalization of companies listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange reached a record P7.96 trillion, almost four times the P2 trillion market cap in 2002—the second year of the Arroyo presidency. That’s a gain of a whopping P5.87 trillion in five years or P1.17 trillion per year. This is the largest wealth creation in any five-year period in the history of the bourse. There are only 430,681 investors in the stock market. Each of them had P4.83 million worth of stocks in 2002. By end-2007, the value of their stocks had increased to P18.48 million, with them doing nothing more strenuous than sit on their asses.

What does President Arroyo get in return for making the rich richer? They are mad with the President. In the Pulse Asia survey of July 2008, 49 percent of the ABC Class had no trust in her; only 24 percent had a big trust; 45 percent disapprove of her performance (down from 30 a year ago); only 23 percent approve (down from 33 a year ago). In the Social Weather Stations survey July 2008, 59 percent of ABC income classes were dissatisfied with her performance in June up from 48 percent dissatisfied in March this year.

Talk about gratitude.

Unemployment surge

In the meantime, more people became poor and jobless. Between 2003 and 2006, poverty increased from 30 percent of total households to 32.9 percent. That’s the equivalent of 800,000 families or 4.4 million people joining the ranks of the poor in just three years at a time when average economic growth was a robust 5.6 percent.

Meanwhile, 240,000 people lost their jobs in the 12 months to April 2008. The number of employed went down to 33.53 million from 33.77 million in April 2007. Unemployment surged to 8 percent in April 2008 from 7.4 percent last year. This happened despite the economy growing at its best in 31 years at 7.3 percent in 2007 and by 5.2 percent in the first quarter 2008.

In fairness, the government claims Arroyo created 9.78 million jobs (163 percent of the six million jobs she promised to create) between 2004 and June 2008, through government intervention in different programs like micro-lending where the middle income borrowed P102.2 billion, 37 times more than the P2.8 billion in 2001.

President Arroyo blames a slack in government spending for the worsening incidence of poverty from 2003 to 2006.

The government didn’t spend enough because it wanted to balance the budget, if not produce a surplus. This was to satisfy the foreign credit rating agencies. They were, and hence, improved the country’s credit standing which meant lower cost of borrowing. But cheaper capital didn’t benefit the poor simply because they couldn’t afford to borrow, while the rich who could borrow money didn’t borrow much because as a I said, they were already raking in gains at the stock market where one can raise money cost-free.

The rich did not invest

And even if cost of money became cheaper, the rich didn’t put up factories to employ people. This explains the job losses. The rich were investing instead in cellular phone networks and in power plants whose profits were guaranteed by the government and whose any increases in costs—interest rate, peso devaluation, higher price of raw materials—were paid for by the government. As for the wireless phone providers, the government gave them a fancy tax incentive called net operating loss carryover or Nolco. Whatever their losses, they can be deducted from future profits. Despite raking in record annual profits, the phone companies ended up paying very little tax to the government.

The pump-priming efforts were not enough or done early enough to benefit the poor, so that when the twin evils of high food prices and high fuel prices came, they devastated the poor.

The rich, meanwhile, had built up enough wealth buffer to cushion themselves from the perfect storm of record-high food prices and high oil prices made worse by the slow-motion decay in the United States economy, the world’s largest in terms of size and in terms of consumption, as demonstrated by the subprime mortgage crisis.

biznewsasia@gmail.com

Darwin G. Amojelar
Manila Times

THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the Philippines’ next assistance program remains “daunting” owing to high poverty levels and weak investments.

In its Country Assistance Program Evaluation Report, the Manila-based lender said its assistance program over the past five years, or from 2003 to 2007, has been successful in meeting its more selective objectives, despite the need for improvements.

“However, the larger context for the next country strategy continues to be daunting. Poverty is high. Progress toward Millennium Development Goals is slow and lagging in key areas, and government expenditures for related social and economic services are still low compared to needs,” the ADB said.

“Private capital formation is low compared to neighbors,” it added.

The regional lender said the country’s export base is narrow and its value-added low. Furthermore, the private sector perceives the need to control corruption, raise infrastructure spending, and education outcomes to improve the country’s competitiveness, the ADB said, adding this should be financed by a strengthened revenue effort.

The reforming energy sector has yet to achieve wider competition and lower electricity rates, while investment rates are low and governance concerns continue to influence investor confidence.

Adding to these constraints are global factors such as slowing growth, a credit squeeze, high oil and food prices, and rising inflation. Hence, in the coming years, the Philippines will face significant development challenges, the ADB said.

“To address the constraints to growth and poverty reduction, the Philippines will need to continue to exercise fiscal discipline and further expand its fiscal space; more widely institute good governance; accelerate infrastructure, education, and other social service development; support expansion and diversification of the economic base; and make access to development opportunities more equitable,” the lender said.

Earlier, the ADB had said that it extended its existing Philippine funding program by two years to support the country’s medium-term development plan.

The regional lender said it has committed $924 million in loans until 2010. Of this amount, $624 million is earmarked for next year and $300 million at the end of the term.

The country’s new strategy would focus on fiscal consolidation, improved investment climate, and accelerated attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

As of last year, the lender had approved $9.8 billion in public loans and $148.8 million in technical assistance to the Philippines. Through its private sector operations for the same period, ADB had approved $275 million in loans and $37 million in equity investments.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—More Filipino families across the country experienced involuntary hunger (hunger due to lack of food) between April and June than during the first three months of the year, a recent Social Weather Stations survey showed.

Amid soaring food and fuel prices, involuntary hunger in Metro Manila rose to a record high of more than one in every five households.

A total of 16.3 percent of families nationwide, equivalent to 2.9 million households or around 14.5 million people, experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the previous quarter, up from the 15.7 percent (2.8 million families) reported in March.

The latest figure is 4 percentage points higher than the 10-year average hunger rate of 12.1 percent.

SWS interviewed 1,200 household heads all over the country from June 27 to 30 for the noncommissioned survey, which had a sampling error of plus-or-minus 3 percentage points.

Intensity worsened

Although hunger incidence rose by a small 0.6 percentage point between the March and June figures, its intensity worsened significantly because of the increase in severe hunger, or hunger experienced often or always, SWS said.

Severe hunger went up from 3.2 percent (about 570,000 families or 2.85 million people) to 4.2 percent (760,000 families or 3.8 million people).

At the same time, moderate hunger, which is experienced once or a few times, declined slightly from 12.5 percent to 12.1 percent (about 2.2 million families or 11 million persons).

The rising incidence and severity of hunger in the country came as prices of goods and services jumped 11.4 percent in June from a year ago, the fastest inflation rate recorded in 14 years, due mainly to the substantial increase in food costs.

The price of rice soared by 43 percent because of higher input costs and the growing demand for the staple.

Global problem

Malacañang Monday said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was implementing measures, including its billion-peso subsidies, to help people cope with rising food and fuel costs and consequently, hunger and poverty problems.

“We look at this (rise in the number of hungry people) as a result of the nationwide crisis, that is global in origin and . . . this is what President Arroyo is focused on,” Press Secretary Jesus Dureza said in a phone-patch interview in Cotabato City where Ms Arroyo is visiting until Tuesday.

Dureza said it was “not principally” government inaction but the global problem of high food and fuel costs that caused the number of hungry people to rise.

In Metro Manila, hunger was at a record high of 22 percent, which is equivalent to 530,000 families or 2.65 million people.

The rate, first reached in June 2007, is 6 percentage points higher than the one recorded in March (15.7 percent), and is 11 percentage points higher than the 10-year average of 11.2 percent.

Moderate hunger in Metro Manila jumped from 10.3 percent to 16 percent, while severe hunger rose from 5.3 percent to 6 percent.

Although total hunger in the rest of Luzon declined almost 4 percentage points (from 16 percent to 12.3 percent), the area had the highest number of families that went hungry in the past quarter (970,000 families or 4.85 million people).

Severe hunger rose slightly from 3.7 percent to 4 percent, while moderate hunger declined from 12.3 percent to 8.3 percent.

While total hunger in Mindanao barely changed (from 18 percent to 17.7 percent, equivalent to 720,000 families or 3.6 million people), severe hunger increased from 2.7 percent to 4.3 percent. Moderate hunger declined from 15.3 percent to 13.3 percent.

In the Visayas, total hunger rose 7 percentage points (from 12.3 percent to 19.7 percent, equivalent to 710,000 families or 3.55 million people), moderate hunger increased by 5 percentage points (from 11 percent to 16.3 percent) and severe hunger rose 2 percentage points (from 1.3 percent to 3.3 percent).

Cyril L. Bonabente, Inquirer Research and Christine O. Avendaño

Roderick T. dela Cruz
Manila Standard

The World Bank has expressed support for the Philippine government’s conditional cash transfer or subsidy program to help the poorest Filipinos cope with rising cost of living.

World Bank country director Bert Hofman said the bank is even willing to work with the Social Welfare Department to expand the scope of the program. The subsidy scheme has proven effective in addressing poverty in Brazil, Mexico and other Latin American countries.

“It is justifiable because it works very well for development,” Hofman said.

Conditional cash transfer seeks to reduce poverty through cash transfers to the poor, a scheme that is based on factors such as regular school attendance or the regular use of preventive health care services.

Under its conditional cash transfer program, the Social Welfare Department seeks to provide monthly cash allowance to 300,000 poor families.

The amount includes a health and nutrition cash assistance of P500 per month per household and an education assistance of P300 per month per child.

Opposition politicians criticized the program as a dole meant to ensure political gain for the Arroyo administration.

Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral said the program is not a dole but a sustainable long-term poverty reduction scheme.

Hofman said the target household beneficiaries of the program should be increased to make its impact more significant. He said better ways of identifying and targeting the poor should be prioritized.

Early this month, President Arroyo endorsed a three-year plan to provide P28 billion in annual subsidies to 4.7 million households living below the poverty threshold.

Incidence of hunger increased to 16.3 percent of the population in the second quarter from 15.7 percent in the first quarter, according to the Social Weather Stations.

As rice prices rose significantly, at least 2.9 million Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the last three months, the Social Weather Stations said.

The World Bank, in its assessment of conditional cash transfer program in Latin America, said there was clear evidence of success in increasing enrolment rates, improving preventive health care, and raising household consumption as a result of the program.

Apart from conditional cash transfer, a one-time P500 subsidy to lifeline users or families using 100 kilowatt-hours of electricity each month has also been added to the pro-poor project.

But Hofman said the level of electricity consumption that qualified for the subsidy should have been lowered.

Rice purchases by the poor have also been subsidized through the National Food Authority, which sells at only P18.25 per kilo, much cheaper than the P25 per kilo price of commercial rice.

There are also plans to extend P500 million in cash assistance for senior citizens not benefiting from pensions from the Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System; provide P1 billion for scholarships and student loans; and establish P1-billion credit facility for the conversion of public utility vehicle engines to make them run on alternative fuels.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives approved a proposal seeking the creation of a Magna Carta for the Poor.

The measure aims to enhance the poor’s right to employment by giving them preferential access to job openings in private enterprises as well as in government programs and projects.

It will make the food subsidy a regular program for the poor and strengthen their right to free quality education by providing them access to study-now-pay-later plans in state colleges and universities. It also aims to provide the poor with decent housing at easy terms.

With Macon Araneta