FARMERS, fishermen and children made up the poorest sectors in the Philippines in 2015, but poverty incidence decreased across all sectors, according to a report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In its 2015 Poverty Statistics for Basic Sectors report, released on June 30, the PSA identified farmers, fishermen and children as the sectors with the highest poverty incidence, among nine basic sectors identified in the Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, or Republic Act No. 8425.
The other basic sectors are: self-employed and unpaid family workers; women; youth; migrant and formal sector workers; senior citizens, and individuals residing in urban areas.
Poverty incidence for the sector of farmers was recorded at 34.3%; fishermen, 34%; and children, 31.4%. These sectors also consistently registered as the three sectors with the highest poverty incidence in 2006, 2009 and 2012. The poverty incidence in these sectors also exceeded the national average of 21.6%.
Other sectors with incidence above the national average are the self-employed and unpaid family workers, and women.
Poverty however, decreased in all sectors from 2012-2015. In contrast, poverty incidence numbers largely were increasing or unchanged in two comparative periods: 2006-2009 and 2009-2012.
National poverty incidence continued its declining trend, with a decrease of 3.6%, higher than the 1.1% for 2009-2012 and 0.3% for 2006-2009.
The PSA report provides poverty incidence estimates using the income and sectoral data from the combined Family Income and Expenditure Survey, which was used for classifying non-poor or non-poor basic sectors, and the Labor Force Survey.
Income refers to the total family income and not the income of the individual in a particular sector. The total family income is divided among the members to get the per capita figure. If the per capita income is below the poverty threshold, all the members of the family are considered as poor and then classified into sectors.
The basic sectors in the report are not mutually exclusive, thus overlaps exist. Women farmers will be accounted for in both the women sector and in the farmer sector, for example.
While economic growth in the past few years brought about by policy reforms delivered jobs and lower poverty incidence, poverty remains a major problem in the country. Earlier this year, the government launched the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, which sets out programs and measures to maximize potential growth and provide better opportunities. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo
