A.

Poverty and Income Inequality in the Philippines

According to the ASEAN Report on Financing Sustainable Development Goals (2017),

about 90% of the ASEAN region’s estimated 36 million citizens living below the international

poverty line ($1.90 per day) come from the Philippines and Indonesia. The Philippines’ poverty

incidence trend was also found to decrease from 17% rate in 2005 to 12% in 2013. From a

national perspective, the latest figures from the 2018 Family Income and Expenditure Survey

(FIES) show that the country’s poverty incidence was estimated at 16.6%. This rate is

approximately 17.6 million citizens living below the national poverty line and is estimated at

Php10,727 for a family of five per month, of which an average of Php7,337 is allotted to basic

food needs. Moreover, the current poverty threshold amount has increased by 10.9% from the

previous Php9,064 in 2015 (PSA, 2019). While there is an evident decline throughout the years,

poverty levels remain high with a slow decline compared to its neighbor countries.
References

PSA. 2019c. Press Release on “Proportion of Poor Filipinos was Estimated at 16.6 Percent in

2018”https://psa.gov.ph/poverty-press releases/pr/2015%20Full%20Year%20Poverty

%20Statistics