Poverty incidence up to 34.3%

President Arroyo, who has declared all-out war against poverty, will apparently have her hands full as recent statistics show that 40 percent of Filipinos are living below the poverty line.

Teresita Deles, chairwoman of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), citing the family income and expenditure survey of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), said the poverty incidence has risen from 31 percent in 1997 to 34.3 percent at present.

Deles said this "translates roughly to 40 percent...which means that if we have 75 million Filipinos, we are talking about roughly 30 million."

She added that nine percent of poor families fall under the category of extreme poverty.

The NEDA survey, she said, gave no conclusions about the factors contributing to such a hike in poverty incidence.

"But we are talking about the period of the Asian crisis, El Niño and the succeeding La Niña, and the period of political instability here," she added.

Deles said the Arroyo administration aims to reduce poverty incidence to 27 to 28 percent within this decade.

The President will lead tomorrow’s observance of the International Day for Overcoming Extreme Poverty.