LEGAZPI CITY, Nov. 8 (PNA) – One piece of good news that lifts Bicolanos' morale is that not one among the region’s six provinces made it to the latest listing released by the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) carrying the country’s top 10 with highest poverty incidence among families.
“Although we regret knowing that our country has provinces where great numbers of families live in destitution, we are pleased by the information that not one Bicol province is now considered within the top 10 in the poverty incidence list,” this city’s mayor Noel Rosal on Sunday said.
This city is among the three localities among Albay province’s 18 local government units that made it to the latest listing of Bicol cities and municipalities with lower incidence of poverty.
The listing, which was recently released by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) based on the project on the generation of the 2012 Municipal and City Level Poverty Estimates, says that poverty incidence in 88 of the 114 municipalities and the seven cities of the region declined between 2009 and 2012.
Legazpi City, which is noted for the tremendous improvements of its tourism industry since about 10 years ago, is mentioned in the NSCB list as the only city in Bicol to be among the top 10 municipalities and cities with the largest reduction in poverty incidence.
These improvements lifted Bicol from the rank of 4th to 7th among the country’s poorest regions with Masbate earlier ranked as among the 10 poorest provinces graduating from the circle in 2012 owing to the reduction of political violence and tourism industry advancement.
According to the latest listing made by the NAPC, the Top 10 provinces in the Philippines that have the highest poverty incidence among families from 2006 to 2012 are, Lanao del Sur, followed by Eastern Samar, Apayao, Maguindanao, Zamboanga del Sur, Sarangani, North Cotabato, Negros Oriental, Northern Samar and Western Samar.
The listing, which was released for the recent observance of the National Week for Overcoming Extreme Poverty, said Lanao del Sur, which is a province located in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), remains to be number one among the provinces with the most number of poor families with 67.3-percent poverty incidence.
The 2010 Census and Housing Population conducted by PSA also shows that there was a drastic drop of population in the same province with 933,260 number of people, which is -6.98 percent from 1,138,544 in 2007.
Eastern Samar, which is a province located in the Eastern Visayas region and whose main economic activities are agriculture and fishery, NAPC said, is now the second poorest province in the Philippines with 55.4 percent poverty incidence.
Apayao, which is part of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) and the least densely populated province with an area of 4413.35 square kilometers and a population of only 112,636 as of 2010, comes third among the poorest provinces of the Philippines with 54.7-percent poverty incidence.
Maguindanao, another part of the ARMM which became the most talked-about province owing to the politically-motivated massacre of 57 people including dozens of local journalists in November, comes 4th with 54.5 percent of the total number of families living in poverty.
The same province once more hugged the international limelight following last Jan. 25’s bloody encounter in Mamasapano town that left dead from the hands of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters 44 members of the police Special Action Force on a mission to neutralize Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist Zulkifli Abdhir aka Marwan.
Zamboanga del Norte in the Zamboanga Penisula region, which was the country’s number one poorest province back in 2006 with its 64.6-percent poverty incidence rate, according to the NAPC listing, is now in the 5th spot by improving to only 48 percent the number of its families living in economic difficulties.
Sarangani and North Cotabato provinces, which are part of the South Cotabato-Cotabato-Sultan Kudarat-Sarangani-Gen. Santos City (SOCCSKSARGEN) region, registered 46- and 44.8-percent poverty incidences to be ranked 6th and 7th, respectively.
Negros Oriental or “Eastern Negros” is located in the southeastern half of the Negros Island Region and despite the fact that it has been an electricity supplier to its neighboring provinces and has a good agricultural land, it still has a poverty incidence rate of 43.9 percent to be ranked 8th.
Northern Samar, which is one of the three provinces comprising the Island of Samar whose tourism industry has great potential but remains unknown to most tourists is number nine poorest with its 43.5-percent poverty incidence rate—a figure which according the NAPC might be lessened once its tourist attractions become fully utilized.
Western Samar which comes 10th, NAPC said, is another new entry in the list of the poorest provinces in the country with 43.5-percent incidence of poverty, same with Northern Samar and one of the most affected areas by the super typhoon "Yolanda" on Nov. 8 2013 which damaged the livelihood of the locals.
The NAPC explained that to be considered non-poor, a family with five members must earn at least Php8,778 a month while an individual also needs to earn at least Php10,534 for six months so he or she would not be considered poor.
Also according to the commission, poverty incidence in 2014 increased to 25.8 percent—meaning, 20 percent or one out of five Filipino families-- which is 1.2 percent higher compared to the 2013 first semester poverty statistics.
The higher count of poor people, it explained, is because food prices and the result of Yolanda.
There are many factors that cause poverty like employment issues and high population growth, but the main factor affecting the country’s economy and the livelihood of Filipinos is the governance issues such as corruption and security issues which are prevalent in Mindanao and other poor areas.
The NAPC said entrepreneurs will not be interested in investing money in a place where there is violence, which results in low employment opportunity and a bad economy.
Poverty incidence, NAPC added, is the proportion of poor individuals/families to the population; those whose income fall below the poverty threshold or those who cannot afford to provide for their basic needs. (PNA) CTB/FGS/DOC/CBD/SSC