While the number of Philippine municipalities with their population classified as “poor” has diminished since 2006 as their financial standing improved, quite a few municipalities saw their economic circumstances worsen as the ranks of those classified as “severely poor” expanded from zero in the past to five at present, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
This development effectively widened the gap between Filipinos who are classified as “least poor” and those other poor Filipinos classified as “severely poor,” and underscored the need for the government to adopt so-called inclusion programs that should lift the less fortunate out of their impoverished surroundings. In between these income classifications sit the “mildly poor,” the “moderately poor” and the “highly poor.”
In an interview with the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the National Dissemination Forum on the 2012 Small Area Estimates (SAE) of Poverty, national statistician Lisa Grace S. Bersales said this was the first time that municipalities and cities registered poverty incidence rates higher than 80 percent since 2006.
The provinces whose poverty situation were classified severely poor included Bacolod-Kalawi, Lanao del Sur, where the poverty incidence rate stood at 84.8 percent and the highest nationwide.
Other municipalities so classified were Datu Saudi-Ampatuan, Maguindanao with a poverty incidence rate of 83 percent; Lumbayanague, Lanao del Sur, 81.9 percent; Piagapo, Lanao del Sur, 81.4 percent; and Talayan, Maguindanao, 80.3 percent.
“There has been much improvement in the poverty status of municipalities because those that were arbitrarily classified as moderately poor moved up to the least poor and the mildly poor. But there are straddlers or municipalities that seem to have difficulty and have now become severely poor, based on our classification. So if you look at it, there is [severe] income inequality because some posted lower poverty incidence and others posted improving poverty incidence,” Bersales said on Friday.
Based on the PSA’s estimates, the least- poor municipalities and cities had a poverty incidence rate of a maximum of 20 percent; the mildly poor, 21 percent to 40 percent; the moderately poor, 41 percent to 60 percent; highly poor, 61 percent to 80 percent; and the severely poor, greater than 80 percent.
In 2012 the number of least-poor municipalities increased to 545, from 419 in 2009, and 357 in 2006. However, there was an increase in mildly poor municipalities to 635 in 2012, from 628 in 2009, although this was still below the 717 posted in 2006.
In terms of the moderately poor, the number declaimed to 349 in 2012, from 524 in 2009, and 484 in 2006. The highly poor municipalities, on the other hand, increased to 99 in 2012, from 63 in 2009, and 70 in 2006.
Meanwhile, data show that 30 of the 40 poorest municipalities are located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, particularly in 15 municipalities and cities each in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao.
Other municipalities classified as poor were in Davao del Sur; Lanao del Norte; Misamis Occidental; Zamboanga del Norte; Northern Samar; and Abra.
“It is worth noting that small area estimates can greatly improve the targeting of interventions. In designing poverty-alleviation projects and allocating scarce resources, it is imperative that the neediest groups are targeted in an optimal manner. This reduces the leakage of transfer of payments to nonpoor areas, and avoids the risk that poor areas will be missed by a program,” Bersales said in her opening remarks.
Metro Manila’s ‘poor’
In the National Capital Region (NCR), or Metro Manila, the highest poverty incidence rate was 10 percent recorded in the Port Area in Manila. It was also the only place in the NCR that posted a double-digit poverty incidence rate.
The other places included in the five poorest places in Metro Manila were Navotas, with a poverty incidence rate of 6 percent; Malabon, 3.8 percent; Tondo, 3.1 percent; and San Nicolas, 3 percent.
PSA data also show that the least poor, or the most well off among the poor in Metro Manila, were in San Juan, with a poverty incidence rate of only 0.3 percent. This was also the lowest poverty incidence rate recorded in the Philippines since the government started using the SAE technique.
Data show that Binondo was classified the least-poor locale in the Philippines in 2000 with a poverty incidence rate of 2.7 percent; 2003, 1.1 percent; and 2009, 1 percent. In 2012 Binondo’s poverty incidence rate stood at 1.5 percent.
Baguio was named the least-poor place in the Philippines in 2006, with a poverty incidence rate of just 1.2 percent. In the 2012 Baguio’s poverty incidence rate was at 0.9 percent, making it the least poor in the Cordillera Administrative Region.
After San Juan, the next least poor was Makati City, which has a poverty incidence rate of 0.5 percent, followed by Sampaloc with 0.8 percent.
Ermita and Paco in Manila followed with a poverty incidence rate of 0.9 percent. Rounding up the five least-poor places in Metro Manila is Parañaque, with a poverty incidence rate of 1.1 percent.
The 2012 municipal- and city-level poverty estimates are a set of estimates forming part of the output of the Project on the Generation of the 2012 Municipal and City Level Poverty Estimates implemented by the PSA but funded by the government of the Philippines.
These poverty estimates are based on the PSA’s Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) that is conducted every three years. The next FIES will be conducted this July 2015.
It is a follow-up study to earlier projects of the former National Statistical Coordination Board (now PSA-Makati), which included poverty mapping in the Philippines, funded through the World Bank-Asia Europe Meeting Trust Fund.
It also includes the Intercensal Updating of Small Area Poverty Estimates, through the World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building and the Project on the Generation of 2006 and 2009 Small Area Estimates of Poverty, with funding assistance from the World Bank, the Australian government, through the Australia-World Bank Philippines Development Trust Fund; and the national government.
The PSA said these projects resulted in the release of 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009 poverty estimates for municipalities and cities using the SAE technique.
The 2012 SAE Project produces estimates for 1,646 municipalities and cities of which 123 are cities, and 14 are the districts of the city of Manila.