FILIPINOS SPENDING P64 FOR MEALS PER DAY NOT FOOD POOR


As long as a Filipino can afford a P64 for their meals a day, they are not considered poor (Photo courtesy of AFP/Jam Sta. Rosa)
Based on National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) data, Filipinos are considered poor if they can only afford P20 for each breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But if a Filipino has P64 all day or P21 and up for a meal, they are not consider as poor.
The Senators during a Senate panel, questioned this data from NEDA. Senator Grace Poe stated, “When you compute poverty thresholds with an old number which is not, obviously not workable anymore, P20 per meal, your poverty forecast is not true.”
Senator Nancy Binay also said that the threshold poverty numbers do not match with what is needed for people to live beyond the minimum necessities.
NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan explained, they are not changing the threshold or basis of being poor at the moment to track if the government's program has an effect on poverty.
“The reason we are keeping it constant, in real terms after adjusting for inflation, is just to ensure that we are tracking the changes properly and allow us to understand whether our policies, our programs are working insofar as these are able to reduce poverty," Balisacan said.
Senator Joel Villanueva calculated the poverty threshold or the measure to say someone is poor. A person is considered poor if the monthly budget is P2,775 which is equivalent to P92.50 of daily budget. This amount can meet the minimum needs such as food, but if it will be look at the price of the goods it seems that it will not be enough.
Despite this, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said that more than 2.5 million Filipinos have been lifted out of poverty. "With favorable conditions, we are on course to become an upper-middle income country by 2025. This means that we can expect the total income of every Filipino to increase."
Source: ABS-CBN News
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