The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released recently its 2018 Full Year Official Poverty Statistics Survey in the Mimaropa region.
According to the report of PSA, in 2018, a family of five members in the region needed P9,679, on the average, to meet both basic food and non-food needs in a month. It reveals that the poverty threshold of the region increased by 14.3 percent from the poverty threshold of P8,468 in 2015.
Meanwhile, the national poverty threshold for a family of five members in 2018 needed P10,727, on the average per month and this was increased by 13.5 percent from the poverty threshold of P9,452 in 2015.
PSA Regional Director Leni R. Rioflorido stated in her report that in 2018, the Mimaropa poverty threshold per family per month is lower by P1,048 or 10.8 percent compared to the national poverty threshold.
“The poverty incidence among Filipino families in Mimaropa in the full year of 2018 was estimated at 10.5 percent. This translates to 105 out of 1,000 families have incomes below the amount needed to buy their basic food and non-food needs in 2018. There was a decrease of 7.3 percentage points compared to the 2015 estimate of 17.8 percent,” said Rioflorido.
With respect to magnitude of poor families, it was revealed in the result of survey that in Mimaropa region, it was estimated at 77.6 thousand. In 2015, this was estimated at 121.4 thousand. It simply implies that there was a reduction of 36.1 percent or 43.8 thousand poor families in 2018.
Rioflorido also reported the poverty incidence among population in the region. She said, “in 2018 poverty incidence among population was estimated at 15.1%percent, which means that 151 out of 1,000 Filipinos belonged to poor families whose incomes were below the amount needed to buy their basic food and non-food needs.”
With regard to the result on the magnitude of poor population, it was reported by the PSA that poor Filipinos whose incomes fall below the poverty threshold in 2018 was estimated at 468.5 thousand while in 2015, this was estimated at 733.5 thousand. This means that there was a 36.1 percent or 265 thousand reduction of poor population in the entire region of Mimaropa.
On the part of food threshold per family per month, Rioflorido announced that a family of five members needed P6,713, on the average, to meet their family’s basic food needs in a month. The food threshold increased by 14 percent compared in 2015, which was estimated at P5,891.
The report revealed that food threshold in Mimaropa region is lower by P815 or 12.1 percent compared to the national food threshold in 2018.
According to PSA, food threshold is the minimum required for a family to meet the basic food needs, which satisfies the nutritional requirements for economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities.
It was revealed in the result of said survey that among the provinces of Mimaropa region, Oriental Mindoro had the highest estimate of P7,016 average food threshold for a family of five members per month in 2018.
On the other hand, Occidental Mindoro recorded the lowest monthly food thresholds for a family of five members at P6,178; followed by Palawan province at P6,786; Romblon at P6,997; and Marinduque at P6,995.
Dir. Rioflorido further explained that the poverty incidence was grouped into five clusters where Cluster 1 described as the poorest and cluster 5 described as the least poor.
“Of the five provinces in Mimaropa region in 2018, Oriental Mindoro belonged to Cluster 5 or least poor cluster. Palawan and Marinduque belonged to Cluster 4 while Occidental Mindoro and Romblon belonged to Cluster 3,” Rioflorido stated.
In summary, Occidental Mindoro improved their cluster grouping to Cluster 3 in 2018 from Cluster 2 in 2015; Oriental Mindoro to Cluster 5 from Cluster 4; while Romblon, Marinduque and Palawan maintained their cluster grouping. (Luis T. Cueto/PIA-OrMin)
