‘Number of poor Pinoys down by 2.5 M in 2013’

MANILA, Philippines - The number of poor Filipinos decreased by 2.5 million last year, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told the House appropriations committee Friday.

“The latest poverty statistics reveal that poverty incidence improved to 24.9 percent in the first semester of 2013, down from 27.9 percent for the same period in 2012. This translates to about 2.5 million Filipinos lifted out of poverty,” Balisacan said.

He said the new poverty numbers came out in the latest survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, appropriations committee chairman, was elated by Balisacan’s report.

“It means that the government, including Congress, is succeeding in the poverty war, contrary to what critics are claiming,” Ungab said.

He said the annual national budget is the government’s principal tool in fighting poverty.

“We will continue to allocate billions for social protection, job generation and economic stimulus programs,” he added.

Romblon Rep. Eleandro Jesus Madrona said although Balisacan’s report was welcome news, “the country still has a long way to go to solve the poverty problem.”

Based on a population of 100 million, Mardona said the latest poverty statistics means that 24.9 million Filipinos were still considered poor last year, although this had gone down from 27.9 million in 2012.

He said the decreasing poverty level means that social protection interventions like the conditional cash transfers to poor families are helping lessen poverty.

“We can fine-tune these programs to make them more efficient and effective,” he added.

Madrona pointed out that the administration would have to sustain its infrastructure development spending to generate more jobs.

In his report, Balisacan said the generation of more decent, productive and high-quality employment that provides adequate income for Filipino workers continues to be a major challenge.

Balisacan said the April 2014 LFS showed that the economy created 1.7 million jobs over the past year.