PSA: Poorest of the poor still the same

Farmers and fishermen remained the poorest of the poor, according to latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

These sectors recorded the highest poverty incidences in 2015 at 34.3 percent and 34 percent, respectively.

Poverty incidence among children belonging to poor families was at 31.4 percent, data also showed.

These three sectors were also the poorest of the poor back in 2006, 2009 and 2012.

The PSA provides estimates of poverty incidence for nine of 14 basic sectors identified in Republic Act 8425 or the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act by using the income and sectoral data from the merged Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and Labor Force Survey (LFS). FIES refers to the total family income and not the income of an individual in a sector.

Data also showed that poverty incidence among the employed but belonging to poor families was higher at 18 percent compared to the unemployed sector at 16.4 percent.

President Duterte earlier ordered the adoption of the National Economic and Development Authority’s (NEDA) long-term vision aimed at tripling Filipinos’ real per capita incomes by eliminating hunger and poverty on or before 2040.

Based on Executive Order No. 5 signed by the President on Oct. 11, 2016, the government aims that “by 2040, the Philippines shall be a prosperous, predominantly middle-class society where no one is poor.” —MA. CASELDA D. CRUZ