Pernia sees 10 to 12% poverty rate in PH by 2022

MANILA — Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia on Wednesday said it is “possible and quite reasonable” that poverty incidence would further drop to “10 to 12 percent” by 2022.

Pernia’s estimates were slightly lower compared to the current administration’s target to bring it down by 14 percent before President Rodrigo Duterte’s term ends in 2022.

He said the revision to the government’s initial 14-percent poverty incidence target in 2022 would be introduced when the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) 2017 to 2022 is updated.

The PDP 2017 to 2022 is a blueprint aimed at boosting economic growth and lifting more Filipinos out of poverty.

“My estimate is I think it’s going to go down to 11 percent.

If you let poverty incidence, which is 16.6 percent now, dropped by 2 to 2.3 percentage points a year, then we will hit I think something like 11 or even less than that by 2022,” Pernia told Palace reporters in a weekly economic briefing.

“I think we will probably change our target for the midterm update of PDP from 14 percent in 2022 to 10 to 12 percent to be sure. In other words, [it would be] 10 to 12 percent possible poverty reduction by 2022,” he added.

Pernia’s statement came after the poverty rate in the country fell to 16.6 percent or 17.6 million Filipinos in 2018, down by 6.6 percentage points from 23.3 percent or 23.5 million Filipinos registered in 2015.

He said it would be “exceedingly satisfying” for the country if the poverty rate eases to below 14 percent by 2022.

Pernia noted that there was a “sharp” decline in poverty incidence because around 5.9 million Filipinos have been lifted out of poverty.

“Alam na ng publiko by now ang balita na bumaba ang poverty incidence natin, significantly, from 23.3 percent in 2015 to 16. 6 percent in 2018 (The public know the news by now about the reported drop in poverty incidence in our country, significantly from 23.3 percent in 2015 to 16.6 percent in 2018),” he said.

“So I suppose that everybody is heartened by the news about the reduction, sharp reduction in poverty incidence by 6.7 percentage points which translates to 2.3 percentage points every year reduction,” he added.

Gov’t ‘exceeding’ target

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) sets the poverty threshold or the amount needed to sustain a family of five at PHP10,727 for 2018, showing an increase of 13.5 percent from the PHP9,452 poverty threshold in 2015, PSA Assistant Secretary Rosalinda P. Bautista said during the press briefing.

Pernia said the significant decrease in poverty incidence was driven by more job opportunities, policy reforms, anti-poor initiatives, and intensified family planning program.

He said the government’s target to reduce poverty would be “easily” attained if the number of poor Filipinos continue to go down by “two to 2.3 percentage points every year.”

“We’re only about 1.6 percentage points to the 14 percent poverty reduction (target), 14 percent poverty rate by 2022 mid-year. So parang it’s a walk in the park na maaabot natin ang 14 percent by 2022. By next year, maabot na `yun eh (So perhaps, it’s a walk in the part to achieve 14 percent by 2022. By next year, we can achieve that),” he said.

“Mag-exceed na tayo ( We can even exceed that). We will have poverty incidence even lower than 14 percent by next year if we go by the rate of decline in poverty incidence,” Pernia added.

Maryanne Darauay, director of National Economic and Development Authority’s Social Development Staff, said the government would continue implementing policies and programs to ensure that poverty incidence would fall below 14 percent.

Some of the government’s anti-poverty initiatives include efforts to expand economic activities, improve regional connectivity, expand access to quality basic education, and address main social problems like teenage pregnancy, Darauay noted.

“We have seen that from this decrease, we have seen that our PDP has really resulted in good results, in positive results,” Darauay said. “We should sustain what we have already started with the PDP and with the medium update of the PDP. We’re going to realign some of the strategies to move forward.” ■