It’s official: Poverty worsened from 2003 to 2006, and the Arroyo administration will almost definitely not achieve its poverty reduction target under its medium-term development plan.
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• Poverty worsens between 2003 and 2006
In a press conference Wednesay, government officials disclosed that poverty incidence increased by 2.5%, from 24.4% in 2003 to 26.9% in 2006.
In 2003, 24 out of 100 families in the Philippines were poor; in 2006, 27 out of 100 families were poor.
Those considered poor are Filipino families of five individuals whose monthly incomes were below P6,274 in 2006.
The actual number of poor Filipino families went up by 16%, from 4 million in 2003 to 4.7 million in 2006.
The actual number of poor Filipinos increased from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006, or a 3.8 million increase in the number of poor people. National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director-General Augusto Santos said he informed President Arroyo about this data Tuesday night through a text message. He also sent her a memorandum on the 2006 Official Poverty Statistics Wednesday morning. Asked what was Arroyo’s response, Santos said: “I have not obtained a response from the President.” Given the bleak poverty figures, the government will not likely meet its target to reduce poverty incidence from 28% in 2004 to between 17-19% in 2010.
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