The ongoing pandemic is having polarizing effects on Filipinos’ socioeconomic standing, pushing more than 4 million people deeper into poverty, while lifting some 800,000 out of economic hardship, the Commission on Population and Development (Popcom) said Monday.
Recent Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reports on official poverty statistics and causes of death show that 4,300,000 Filipinos or about 861,300 families sank below the poverty threshold in regions that saw over 90 percent of COVID-19-related deaths as of September 2021, Popcom said.
On the other hand, five regions which were least affected by the contagion, or those with 8.1 percent of deaths in 2021, saw 809,500 Filipinos, or some 161,900 families, improve their living conditions, according to the same report.
The bulk of families elevated from poverty live in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), as provinces of Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao and Basilan raised 121,000 out of economic strain. However, poverty rose for 28,300 families in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
In Lanao del Sur, poverty reduction was at 57percent, from 68 percent of families to 11 percent, which vastly improved the quality of living for more than 500,000 Filipinos there from 2018 to 2021. The province transitioned from having the highest number of poor families three years ago, to the ninth with the least number.
“The rate of poverty reduction is nothing short of spectacular in Lanao del Sur, as this occurred during a combined national health and economic crisis,” Popcom Executive Director Juan A. Perez III said.
“The fact that the province is in a region least affected by COVID-19 contributed greatly to the outcome.”
Perez also noted that the poverty threshold in BARMM increased by only P527.00 in the last three years starting in 2018, compared with the national average at P1,860.00. He said the figures indicate that “the said region’s economy was least affected by the economic downturn which occurred in COVID-19-affected regions, as it had the least improvement in the last three years.”
The Popcom chief also noted that Sulu now holds the record for having the largest percentage of families at 71.9 percent, or 111,200, living below the poverty threshold. However, in terms of absolute numbers, the province of Cebu has the most number of poor families at 276,900; followed by Negros Occidental (166,000); Camarines Sur (152,300); Pangasinan (138,600); Bulacan (132,000); and Zamboanga del Norte (131,200).
Regional economies with the most number of pandemic-plagued areas also showed increases in their poverty threshold—well above their poverty levels in 2018—and exhibited the collateral effects of the pandemic. Those which reflected increases in poverty threshold above their 2018 poverty levels, as well as their COVID-19-related deaths from January to September 2021, are as follows: Central Luzon (+ P3,250; 9,001 deaths), Ilocos: (+ P2,633; 1,891 deaths), National Capital Region: (+ P2,523; 14,218 deaths), Central Visayas: (+ P2,450; 1,622 deaths), Cagayan Valley (+ P2,044; 1,824 deaths), CALABARZON: (+ P1,935; 10,386 deaths), and Bicol: (+P1,898; 1,141 deaths).
“Families in Central Luzon were most affected by the increase in the poverty threshold, with an additional 190,900 or 46 percent, who became poorer in the last three years,” Perez added. “The increase of poverty was also felt in Central Visayas, as 173,500 families languished below the poverty threshold in three years.”
Perez said he believes that both the BARMM and Lanao del Sur may hold the key to dealing with the compounded economic and health crises through further studies.
“Prospects for the reduction of poverty in the next few years hinge on our actions in containing COVID-19 in the most affected regions,” he said.