POOR PEOPLE IN

THE PHILIPPINES
Picture taken at slum areas
in Manila which are hidden
by large tall buildings and
condominiums owned by
rich people and
businessmen.

POVERTY
Poverty clearly is a matter of unmet human need. (Source:

Encyclopedia of Political Economy. HB 61 E54 1999. 2nd Floor,

Information-Reference Section)
Poverty means inability to secure the minimum consumption

requirements for life, health and efficiency on account of insufficient

income or property. These requirements include minimum human
needs in respect of food, clothing, housing, education and health.
(Source:Dictionary of Economics.Kapur, Sudarshan Kumar. HB 61
K36 1997. 2nd Floor, Information-Reference Section)

THE POOR IN THE

PHILIPPINES
In the Lens of Social Analysis

FACTS
The percentage of people living below the poverty
line in the Philippines has narrowed only slightly,
despite robust growth of the Philippine economy
over the last few years, according to the latest data
from the countrys statistics agency.
The percentage of those living in poverty was
19.7% in 2012, a drop from the 21% reported in
2006, according to figures reported Monday by the
National Statistical Coordination Board, or NSCB.

FACTS
Although the proportion of poor families relative to
the overall population has changed little between 2006
and 2012, the NSBC said that the actual number of
poor families has risen to 4.21 million from 3.81
million, in part due to population growth. That
translates to 23.75 million Filipinos in 2012 compared
to 22.64 million six years earlier, it added.
(Reference:
http://blogs.wsj.com/indonesiarealtime/2013/12/10/phili
ppines-poverty-rate-narrows-little-despite-economicgrowth/ )

Late last month, the Secretary

General of the state agency National
Statistical Coordination Board wrote
in an article that the gap between
the countrys rich and poor is
widening, with the countrys strong
growth, the fastest in Asia so far this
year, benefiting high-income earners
more than those from the middleand low-income classes. The article
said the rich were enjoying
significantly faster growth in
incomes compared with people
from lower income classes. (Reference
from:
http://blogs.reuters.com/photographersblog/2013/07/25/rich-and-poor-in-thephilippines/ )

CAUSES OF POVERTY
High and persistent levels
Low to moderate economic growth
for the past 40 years;
of inequality (incomes and
Low growth elasticity of poverty
assets), which dampen the
reduction;
positive
impacts
of
Weakness in employment
economic expansion; and
generation and the quality of jobs
Recurrent
shocks
and
generated;
exposure to risks such as
Failure
to
fully
develop
the
economic crisis, conflicts,
agriculture sector;
natural
disasters,
and
High inflation during crisis periods;
"environmental poverty."
High levels of population growth;
(Reference:
http://www.adb.org/publica
tions/poverty-philippinescauses-constraints-andopportunities)

I N D I C AT I O N S O F P OV E RT Y

I N D I C AT I O N S O F P OV E RT Y

I N D I C AT I O N S O F P OV E RT Y

I N D I C AT I O N S O F P OV E RT Y

A boy looks up from a rat infested garbage pile where he

is looking for items to recycle in the slums of Tondo.

Irish Romes, 19, holds her newborn baby Jay, 2 weeks

old, inside a small space where she lives with her family
next to a highway in the slums of Binondo.

A woman checks the burning garbage for items to recycle in the

Tondo slums.

Men cook chicken for dinner on a makeshift grill on the streets of

the slums of Binondo as a teen openly sniffs solvent .

THE POOREST PROVINCES

IN PH
Cai Ordinario

There are 16 provinces that have

40% of their population living below
the poverty threshold
MANILA, Philippines - Despite the
government's efforts to improve the
lives of Filipinos in the countryside,
in the first 6 months of 2012 there
were 15 provinces & 1 city that have
over 40% of their population living
below the poverty threshold.
The1st Semester 2012 Poverty
Statistics released by the
National Statistical Coordination
Board (NSCB) on Tuesday, April 23,
showed that most of the poorest
provinces are located in Mindanao
while the least poor were located
mainly in Luzon.

Below is a map showing the poverty incidence -- a

percentage of the region's population -- nationwide.

"The regions with the lowest poverty incidence

in the first semester of 2006, 2009, and 2012
continue to be the National Capital Region,
Calabarzon, and Central Luzon. As of the first
semester 2012, ARMM (Autonomous Region
in Muslim Mindanao) consistently figured in
the bottom poorest cluster of the regions with a
poverty incidence among families between 42%
and 47% in the first semesters of 2006, 2009, and
2012," said NSCB Secretary General Jose Ramon
Albert.

The 15 poorest provinces in the country in the first

6 months of 2012 were:
Lanao del Sur - 68.9%
Apayao - 59.8%
Eastern Samar - 59.4%
Maguindanao - 57.8%
Zamboanga del Norte - 50.3%
Davao Oriental - 48%
Ifugao - 47.5%
Sarangani - 46.5%
Negros Oriental - 45.3%
Masbate - 44.2%
North Cotabato - 43.9%
Northern Samar - 43.7%

Who is poor?
The government considers a Filipino family poor
if monthly earnings are less than the poverty
threshold. In the 1st semester of 2012, poverty
threshold for a family of 5 was at P5,458 per
The
same
family
required
only P1,681 in 2006
month
to meet
basic
food needs.
and P2,042 in 2009 to leave the ranks of the
poor.
If non-food needs -- such as clothing, housing,
transportation, health, and education expenses,
and others -- are added to the threshold, cut off
in 2012 went up to P7,821 earnings a month.
Natural disasters like typhoons kept many poor
Filipinos below the poverty line. NSCB's Albert
said disasters were "a threat to development."

Income inequality
The income divide between the have's and havenot's remain wide, the data showed.
"We observe that the bottom 20% of families have
a share of about 6% of the total national income,
whereas, the upper 20% of income distribution,
have a share of nearly 50% of total national
income," Albert said.
"The total income of the top 20% of Pinoy families,
in other words, is approximately 8 times of the
total income of the bottom 20% of Filipino families
in the first semester of 2006, 2009, and 2012," he
added.

Income inequality
The NSCB explained that income gap measures the amount of
income required by the poor in order to get out of poverty, in
relation to the poverty threshold itself.
This may be used as a hypothetical benchmark for the amount
needed to eradicate poverty as a whole, assuming expenses are
focused solely on assistance rather than on targeting costs such
as operations and implementation.
The government conducts poverty surveys every 3 years.
http://www.rappler.com/business/27276-poorest-provinces-philippines#
http://static.rappler.com/images/philippines-poverty-map-21030424.jpg

REASONS WHY PHILIPPINES IS POOR

by Roderick T. dela
Cruz

CIAT

WEAK government spending and political

uncertainty are just some of the reasons why the
Philippines has been outperformed by most of its Asian
neighbors, a study sponsored by the International
Monetary Fund showed.

Social injustice and ignorance. Nobody is

persecuted and jailed for corruption and
wrongdoing. The poor need education for the
upliftment of their lives.

Poverty is due to CORRUPT GOVERNMENT

OFFICIALS and their allies. The majority, if not all,
and they enrich themselves at the expense of the Filipino
taxpayers.

the major development imbalance- Everything is focused

on Metro Manila because of our centralized form of
government that hasnt worked to the advantage of the poor.

STUDIES RESEARCHED FROM THE

POOR SECTOR
The Philippines has a very diverse people all the way from
extreme poverty to people on the Forbe 500 list. There is no
one typical view of what a local lives like. However, many view
the Flipino as living in poverty in a urban setting such as
Tondo or Recto.
For the poor, living in the Philippines can be a challenge
especially in urban areas. The complexity of poverty creates a
mindset that people just live bound in fear. They have fear that
there will be no electricity, fear of no food, and fear of crime.
They live out their own whole life in constant fear.

Many of them, especially girls do this, using sexuality as a means to get

support. They make a career out of sitting in the internet cafe and trying
to find an American to marry with no regard to love, just if he will
support them and their family. This is how the 20 year old Filipina ends
up marrying a 70 year old America. It is not love, it is a business
decision.
Some of them even freelance just making the spiritual issue harder.
They trade sexuality for material or lifestyle gain. Some of them do not
want money outright. They want a vacation from poverty and of course,
air conditioning. Sadly, some girls will just pass from guy to guy coming
into the country so they live on one really long vacation at the cost of the
expat visiting the Philippines.
Philippines: a hellhole? Written by Peter Vandever, Posted in Notes from the Road
(http://petervandever.com/2013/07/philippines-a-hellhole/)

L E N S O F S O C I A L A N A LY S I S
About half of the Philippines 88 million people live in
rural areas. Poverty is most severe and most widespread
in these areas and almost 80 per cent of the countrys
poor people live there.
Agriculture is the primary and often only source of
income for poor rural people, most of whom depend on
subsistence farming and fishing for their livelihoods. In
general, illiteracy, unemployment and the incidence of
poverty are higher among indigenous peoples and people
living in the upland areas. Overall, more than a third of
the people in the Philippines live in poverty. Reference:
http://www.adb.org/publications/poverty-philippinescauses-constraints-and-opportunities

L I N K I N G N AT I O N A L
GOALS TO LOCAL ACTION
In keeping with the equitable spirit of the progress
made so far, the Philippines has embarked on a
deliberate program to improve the personal security
and opportunity of the great mass of Filipinos. The
Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan was devised
in 2001 with four main policy objectives:

1. macroeconomic stability and equitable growth

based on free enterpriseto stress the importance of
economic progress in the bid to reduce poverty levels,
2. agricultural and fisheries modernizationto
ensure the needed focus on food security and the
growth of the rural sector and to address the problems
of regional poverty and underemployment,

3. comprehensive human development and the

protection of the vulnerableto fill the need for
greater social protection and accurate and effective
delivery of basic services to the poor, and
4. good and effective governanceto underscore
the fundamental role of government (both national
and local) in all poverty reduction efforts

L I N K I N G N AT I O N A L
GOALS TO LOCAL ACTION
Within this framework of growth and stability,
the Philippines proceeded to outline the five
principles of its national anti-poverty strategy

1. accelerated asset reformto address the

problem of economic inequity and widen the citizens
share of resources, whether natural or
manufactured;
2. improved access to human development
servicesto increase the number of people receiving
adequate education, health care, sanitation,
electricity, potable water, and housing;

3. the provision of better employment and

livelihood opportunities;
4. security from violence and social protection for
vulnerable sectorsto eliminate all forms of
discrimination; and
5. the institutionalized participation of the poor in
matters of governanceto address the issue of
political equity.

The Philippine development process begins at the

national level, where policies are formulated, budget
appropriations are decided, and the countrys overall
economic policy is determined. These national
policies are then transmitted to the regional level
through various regional offices. From there the bulk
of the nextand most difficultphase of the
process is passed on to the implementing agents: the
countrys local government units.

L I N K I N G N AT I O N A L
GOALS TO LOCAL ACTION
At the local level, the Philippine governments
anti-poverty strategy revolves around a
policy of convergence and consultation.

S T R AT E G Y I D E N T I F Y I N G A C L E A R S E T
OF DESIRED OUTCOMES FOR PROGRAMS
AT T H E L O C A L L E V E L
alocaldevelopmentplanincorporatingtargets
andthecorrespondingincreasein budget allocation
for MDG-responsive programs and projects,
localpoliciesthatfacilitatetheachievementofthe
MDGs,
alocalmonitoringsystemtotrackprogress
towardtheattainmentofthe MDGs,

improveddeliveryofbasicservicesthroughthe
replicationofgoodpractices,and
theinclusionoftheaccomplishmentofMDG
targetsamongtheperformance commitments of
local government units.

L E SSO N S F R O M T H E
P HI L IPP IN E E X PE R IE N CE
In general, the Philippine experience suggests
seven basic imperatives for developing nations:

sound macroeconomic policies to promote the creation of

jobs and suitable employment opportunities for the poor;
a strong partnership between national governments and
local government units to maintain the relevant and timely
delivery of services, assistance, and additional resources to
the poorest of the poor;
equitable asset distribution to prevent and eliminate
social inequity, poverty, and hunger;

infrastructure development to expand and enhance each countrys

competitive advantages;
rural and agricultural development to ensure food security, economic
competitiveness, regional growth, and national self-reliance;
good governance and carefully controlled public investments to
guarantee both the integrity of government and the efficiency of public
spending; and
political stability to encourage peoples trust in the political
leadership and its system of governance.

But perhaps the most important lesson learned so

far is that poverty and hunger must be confronted
not merely as problems experienced by households,
communities, and nations but as a challenge to
humanity as a whole.
Source: Panganiban, D. Reaching the Poorest of the
Poor at the Community Level: The Experience of the
Philippines, pp. 1-6

2015: Year of the Poor

POPE FRANCIS AND

HIS VIEWS ON
POVERTY

 M O S T P E O P L E A SS U M E T H AT P OV E RT Y I S A N
ETERNAL FIXTURE OF LIFE IN THE WORLD,
I N D I C AT I N G T H AT T H E W O R L D H A S N E V E R
W I T N E SS E D A T I M E W H E N A B S O LU T E P OV E RT Y D I D
N O T E X I S T.

The world is concerned on the eradication of absolute poverty and not on

relative poverty which is only temporary. Absolute poverty occurs when
most people in the world lacks the capacity to have a healthy, long-term
and productive life.
According to world bank, government efforts has reduced absolute
poverty from 51 to 21 percent.
According to the United Nations, one-third of the food produced in the
world is discarded.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/pope-distribution-of-wealth_n_6192132.html
http://www.catholic.org/news/hf/faith/story.php?id=55342

POPE FRANCIS CALLED ALL

C AT H O L I C S T O D O T H E I R PA R T
T O E R A D I C AT E W O R L D
HUNGER BY 2025 BY
D O N AT I N G F O O D T O T H E
POOR.
H T T P : / / W W W. C AT H O L I C . O R G / N E W S / H F /
FA I T H / S T O R Y. P H P ? I D = 5 5 3 4 2

What happens is that the unemployed, in their hours of

solitude, feel miserable because they are not earning their
living. That is why it is very important that governments of
all countries, through the relevant ministries and
departments, cultivate a culture of work, not of charity.
They have to cultivate sources of work because, and I never
tire of repeating, this, work confers dignity.
Pope Francis, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/pope-francis-on-the-truemeaning-of-poverty

For us Christians, poverty is not a sociological, philosophical

or cultural category. No, it is a theological category. I would
say, perhaps the first category, because God, the Son of God,
abased Himself, made Himself poor to walk with us on the
road. And this is our poverty: the poverty of the flesh of Christ,
the poverty that the Son of God brought us with His
Incarnation. A poor Church for the poor begins by going to the
flesh of Christ. If we go to the flesh of Christ, we begin to
understand something, to understand what this poverty is, the
poverty of the Lord.
http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/pope-francis-on-the-truemeaning-of-poverty

THE MAJOR DILEMMA

Our country and the whole world expresses its
apprehension towards the huge inequality between
the rich and the poor.

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2013/pope-francis-on-the-truemeaning-of-poverty

"It is also painful to see that the struggle

against hunger and malnutrition is hindered
by 'market priorities,' the 'primacy of profit,'
which have reduced foodstuffs to a
commodity like any other, subject to
speculation, also of a financial nature,
Pope Francis
Pope Francis told the U.N. that access to
food is an essential human right and it
shouldnt be exposed to market theories
and pursuit for income.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/20/pope-distributionof-wealth_n_6192132.html

According to the Pope, wasting

food is like stealing food from the
tables of the poor.
He also acknowledged the fact
that people worry too much about
materialism and the prices of the
stock market but care too little for
the welfare of the poor.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/05/
pope-francis-world-environmentday_n_3390299.html

The pope said solidarity entails struggling "against

the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack
of work, land and shelter, the denial of social and
labor rights," and confronting what he called the
"empire of money.
Pope Francis disapproved demolishing poor
settlements in underdeveloped countries by real
estate developers

T HE P O NT IF F I N M A N ILA
During the homily of Pope Francis concluding mass
in Luneta, he addressed the matter of birth control and
climate change.
With regards to population control, he stated that we
need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed,
cherished and protected, and we need to care for our
young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope
and condemned to life on the streets.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-talks-povertyclimate-change-ahead-of-philippine-mass-1421562210

Excerpts from the Joy of the Gospel : Pope

Francis on Care for the Poor

EVANGELII GAUDIUM

48. We have to state, without mincing words, that there is an

inseparable bond between our faith and the poor. May we never
abandon them.
53. Just as the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" sets a clear limit
in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to
say "thou shalt not" to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such
an economy kills.
How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly
homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock
market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we
continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are
starving? This is a case of inequality.

189. The private ownership of goods is

justified by the need to protect and
increase them, so that they can better
serve the common good; for this reason,
solidarity must be lived as the decision to
restore to the poor what belongs to them.
201. none of us can think we are
exempt from concern for the poor and for
social justice.
203. The dignity of each human person
and the pursuit of the common good are
concerns which ought to shape all
economic policies.

CONTEXT
(SITUATIONS)
The family of Arnold Bolata, a 38-year-old father of four who works as a driver
of a motorcycle taxi or tricycle and his 33-year-old wife Nancy, a street food
vendor and a part-time cook at a small soft drinks company. They own a twobedroom shanty at a squatter colony in suburban Quezon city, north of the capital
Manila. Arnold and Nancy met in the same neighborhood 11 years ago. All their
four children study at a public school, where they pay only 100 pesos ($2.3) for
each child annually as a required school contribution. Arnold works 16 hours a
day with only Sunday as his rest day, and plies the streets even during rainy days.
Nancy sells sweet banana snack which she herself cooks. They earn a combined
income of about 20,000 pesos a month ($462), just enough to put food on the
table three times a day and pay for their household expenses.
(Reference:
http://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?
VP3=PostDetail&VBID=2CK0MUE_5&IID=2C0BF1OQR5Z02&PN=3)

SOURCES:
Leland Joseph R. Dela Cruz, 2009 Philippine Poverty, 9 February 2011,
http://www.slideshare.net/ldelacruz/poverty-situationer-2011-8294418
(accessed
February 15, 2012).
Calderon, Justin (30 April 2013). "How feudalism will undo the Philippine
elections". Inside Investor. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
Romulo A. Virola, 2009 Official Poverty Statistics, 8 February 2011,
http://www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty/2009/Presentation_RAVirola.pdf (accessed February
15, 2012).
Philippines Development Plan 2011-2016 (Philippines 2011)
Asian Development Bank, Poverty in the Philippines: Causes, Constraints and
opportunities (Asian Development Bank, 2009).
Philipinas Natin, In Pursuit of Inclusive Growth.
"Philippine job growth lowest in ASEAN-5". Investvine.com. 2013-02-11. Retrieved
2013-03-15