DIPOLOG CITY, Zamboanga del Norte—Fifty-six of 72 municipalities in Zamboanga Peninsula (Region 9), or close to 77 percent, recorded a significant improvement in their poverty incidence list, a government agency said.
A Philippine Statistics Authority report received here recently said that poverty incidence of the region’s 56 towns declined between 2009 and 2012, thereby taking them out from “the poorest 30 in the country’s poverty incidence tally.”
The report noted that Sirawai, Zamboanga del Norte registered the biggest improvement during the four-year survey with a 20.2-percent reduction from a poverty incidence of 61.7 percent in 2009 to 42.5 percent in 2012.
According to PSA, 10 other Region 9 municipalities which were included in 2009’s 30 poorest municipalities also revealed a reduction in poverty incidences in the 2012 survey.
These 10 improved LGUs, PSA said, were Siayan, Baliguian, Godod, Gutalac, Manukan, Sibuco, Jose Dalman, President Manuel Roxas and Bacungan in Zamboanga del Norte.
The towns of Mabuhay and Talusan in Zamboanga del Sur also made it to the list.
The report said PSA, in gathering the 2012 LGU level poverty statistics, utilized the modified Elbers, Lanjouw and Lanjouw (ELL) methodology developed by the World Bank which combined the latest data available, including the merged 2012 Family Income and Expenditure Survey, Labor Force Survey and 2010 Census of Population.