GLOBALIZATION may have failed to lift the poorest three sectors of the country, an analyst noted as government statisticians bared the result of the official poverty statistics for the basic sectors.

Wilfredo Nuqui of the National Defense College of the Philippines said globalization, or the liberalization of the country’s key economic segments, is one of the likely effects that may explain the increase in poverty incidence studied by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

“The Philippines has a high income inequality, so when you have growth, it is not broadly distributed and benefits only narrow tradeable sectors,” Nuqui, an NDCP Associate Fellow, said during the User’s Forum on the 2006 Poverty Statistics for the Basic Sectors.

In that forum on Thursday, the NSCB revealed that of the 14 basic sectors defined by law, fishermen, farmers and children comprised the poorest three sectors in 2006 with poverty incidences of 49.9 percent, 44 percent and 40.8 percent, respectively.

All three sectors, according to the presentation, posted increases in poverty incidence between the period 2003 and 2006, considered the boom years of the Philippines.

“Children, women and urban poor accounted for the largest number of poor population at 14.4, 12.8 and 6.9 million in 2006,” the NSCB report said.

Among the regions, poverty incidence is highest in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) for children, farmers, women, youth, urban population and senior citizens. Fishermen and migrant and formal-sector workers were the poorest in the Caraga region.

Region V has the most number of poor children and women, while the ARMM had the most number of poor farmers and fishermen.

Regions IV-A, V and VI have the highest concentration of poor women while the first two regions, plus the three regions in the Visayas island-group have the biggest number of poor children.

The ARMM has the highest incidence of poor senior citizens, the highest concentration of poor farmers, and has the biggest share of poor farmers in 2006.

Nuqui added that other factors that could explain higher poverty incidence is the low investment on infrastructure at an investment-to-GDP ratio of less than 3 percent.

“We have the lowest budget allocation for infrastructure in Asia.”

Nuqui noted that with an average annual consumer price index of 6.4 percent in 2004 to 2006, “apparently remittances of overseas Filipino workers have not been helpful in poverty reduction.”

“They are not translated into income-generating activities.” Nuqui said other factors that may have likely pushed up poverty incidence in the country include a high fertility rate (there are bigger families of poor at 5.87 per household than nonpoor at 4.34), armed conflict in ARMM, and that oil prices and deregulation may have affected fisherfolk and farmers.

Nuqui proposes further study on the effects of fuel costs, unsustainable fishing and farming practices, as well as climate change, in the poverty incidence of the two basic sectors.