Who is GMA fooling?

THINK-TANK BELIES CLAIM POVERTY RATE IMPROVED UNDER GMA

One of the questionable economic achievements of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as propagated by Cabinet secretary Ricardo Saludo, is that her administration was able to lift 1.9 million Filipinos from poverty. This was based on the reduction of the number of poor Filipinos between 2000 and 2003.

Amid heightened calls for the President to step down, Sec. Saludo cited Pres. Arroyo’s so-called economic achievements to prove that she remains the “best” leader for the country.

But according to independent think-tank IBON, what Sec. Saludo failed to mention was that the government was able to “achieve” this by setting an incredibly low poverty threshold.

The annual per capita poverty threshold set by the government using its 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) is P12,267. This means that the Arroyo administration believes that Filipinos can meet their basic needs with just P33.61 a day, or a monthly income of P1,022.25. In other words, a Filipino can only be considered “poor” if he has less than P33 a day.

This unbelievable poverty threshold is even lower than the $1 a day and $2 a day measures that are widely accepted by international development agencies as a measure of poverty.

Further, government says that P168.04 a day is sufficient for a family of five members to meet their minimum food and non-food needs. But IBON estimates that as of January 2006, a family of five members needs at least P449 a day to meet its basic needs.

Using this estimate and the government’s FIES, IBON says that 83% of the country’s families are considered poor, compared to government’s figure of only 24.7 percent.

IBON urges Malacañang to stop manipulating statistics to conceal the obvious state of increasing poverty in the country, and to claim that it has uplifted the economy. (end)