POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET

Master in Public Administration

Graduate Studies Department
Mindanao State University
Marawi City

In Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements
PA 205- Introduction to Public Policy
& Local Government

INSHIRA DANSAL M.

July 2021
 POVERTY AND THE FILIPINO MINDSET

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

There are possible conditionings why poverty are prevalent in the Philippines.

The

mindset is instilled in the subconscious of the poor, and they have learned to live with it.

The songs being taught and sang in elementary schools lines such as “Bahay Kubo,

kahit munti, ang halaman doon ay sari-sari,” (My nipa hut is small, but it has a variety of

plants)

“ Magtanim ay di biro,” (Planting is never fun..) and “I have two hands clean little hands

are good to see “ are indications that social conditioning which aligns with poverty is

very evident. A small nipa house of a poor farmer represents a simple yet happy home.

Clean hands of a construction worker. Social conditioning such as this is a process of

conditioning the mindset of individuals to respond to what is expected by the society.

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and Forbes’ richest man in the world, also

shared,

“if you’re born poor, it is not your mistake. But if you die poor, it’s your mistake.” To him,

to be poor is a choice, but one can change that. However, this conditioning of being

poor is inculcated in the subculture of the society, and many are poor because they

benefit from it as they are under welfare program from government and non-government

agencies. (Bradshaw, 2007).

Regardless of the causes, poverty alleviation remain as elusive dream in some

parts of Lanao del sur, which is considered one of the poorest provinces of the country,

because it is not completely understood in the context of the poor. The general aim of

the study was to distill the mindset of the participants along poverty situation in

Balindong, Lanao del sur.

An article from GetRealPhilippines.com has this to say, “Filipinos obsession with

with happiness is what keeps them mired in chronic poverty. “Such as expression is

very ironic considering the fact that happiness is usually associated with material

abundance or prosperity.

According to Benigno (2014), “One wonders why the poor Filipinos continue to

fail

Because Filipinos have been led to believe that simply being “happy” makes them

“winners”. That is a nice philosophy to live with, when you are happy being a loser for

the rest of your existence, and that is, so to speak a kind of mentality that one wishes to

entertain for the rest of his/her own life.

One reason why the people need to do research more is to prevent them

from

thinking ridiculous ideas about how to live life. And the only thing such an experience

reveals is that the researcher has to immerse himself in a concrete situation in order to

really understand poverty.

Theoretical Framework
 There are many reasons why Filipinos are poor. We can attribute poverty with

the

rapid population growth that our economy cannot cope with. We can blame it to

unemployment, inflation, inequality and corruption as a direct cause of why Filipinos are

poor. However, if we wish to simplify the problem, we may say that the most Filipinos

are poor because they were born poor as a matter of circumstance.

According to an SWS survey, the ratio of poverty in Luzon is at 45 percent, 74

Percent in the Visayas, and 71 percent in the Mindanao. Needless to say, many

Filipinos are in dire poverty even before they can even spell “happiness”. Filipino

children are poor even before they have tested a little comfort with bits of simple

happiness manifestly shown thru their faces. As these children grow up they come to

realize that they are poor and star wondering, even yet during their tender years, why

they are in such a situation and not in the same way they saw with some children who

are clean, well dressed, weel feed and being taken-cared of their nannies off to school

and back home. And so they grow older, poor children started to thinking about why and

what makes them poor and so begins to feel discriminated, bullied, deprived and etc. by

their well-off counterpart.

Psychologically, children who grew up poor suffer from negative emotions when

they become adult. According to science Daily (2013), it states that;

Researchers found that test subjects who had lower family incomes at age 9
exhibited, as adults, greater activity in the amygdala, an area in the brain
known for its role in fear and other negative emotions. These individuals
showed less activity in areas of the prefrontal cortex, an area in the brain
thought to regulate negative emotion.
 What it means is that a person who experienced chronic stress from childhood to

adolescence may be less capable of suppressing negative emotions such as fear. In

fact according to surveys, 1/6 of people raised in poverty developed mental disorders.

The psychological consequences of childhood poverty and stress are the same

psychological barriers that may prevent a person from becoming more successful in

adulthood. Furthermore, impediments to the development of the prefrontal cortex can

also affect a child’s ability to learn, making it more difficult to compete with children who

did not grow up in poverty.

Statement of the Problem

The researcher aims to analyze and interpret the Filipino mindset in the context

of

understanding the real meaning of poverty in the Philippines situation. By analyzing the

said title, the study proceeds to show the real causes or causes of poverty inherent in

the psycho-social well-being of poor Filipinos.

Specifically the study is guided by the following questions;

1) What is poverty?

2) What is the Filipino viewpoint in relation to poverty?

3) How can Filipino viewpoint with regards to poverty be corrected to effect

change in his/her psychological frame of mind.

Significance of the Study

In one of the few studies on poverty in the Philippines, 200 low-income Filipinos

Expressed feelings of hopelessness or despair; disillusionment with the economic,

social and political conditions in the country; but with little sense of resignation or apathy

(Guerrero, 1973). This lack of resignation was due to a belief in their power to change

conditions in the country using peaceful means (Guerrero, 1973). Finding showed that

people who are poor have few aspirations for themselves but hold high hopes for their

children’s futures and educational attainment. According to Guerrero, their socio-

psychological traits and attitudes are a sense of life being unfavorable; dissatisfaction

due to the discrepancy between expectation and attainment; high work orientation;

reliance on chance or luck; the magical role of education; being half optimistic and half

hopeless; and disillusionment with social, economic and political conditions in the

Philippines. However, Guerrero’s study was conducted more than 30 years ago, and

although a low income sample population was investigated, nothing is known about the

origins of the participants’ poverty, including whether the participants had always been

poor. Knowledge of its origins is part of understanding poverty: this study investigates

Filipinos who were born poor.

in this study, the differences in terms of perceived causes of poverty,

experiences

of poverty, coping, and cultural characteristics of coping become relevant to

understanding how people raised in poverty have evolved to lead different lives.
According to Harrison (2000), the crucial elements in explaining poverty’s persistence

are the culture, values, and attitudes in society that obstruct progress. Those who stay

indigent may have different experiences of struggle; prejudice, power, and privilege in

their society may work to keep them impoverished. Filipinos who move out of poverty

may be creating a different culture- a new paradigm of human progress (Harrison,

2000). It is with this perspective that the present study seeks to understand the

psychology of poverty- by contrasting people of comparably impoverished origins who

had opposite outcomes in financial circumstances.

Scope and Limitation

This research work would seek to investigate a specific type of mentality

among

poor Filipinos in the context of their observational behavior that causes them to remain

in poverty for the rest of their life. The areas of inquiry cover only communities

specifically identified by The Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) in

Balindong Lanao del sur among the 32 barangays under the 4P’s program of the MSSD

as the primary respondents for this research, specifically respondents who are residents

of Cadayonan, Balindong Lanad del Sur. Other topics relevant to this research study

under discussion shall likewise be treated secondarily upon the researcher’s evaluation

of their applicability. The range that this study may take will depend upon certain topics

under discussion; hence, other references may be quoted for that matter. Sources
relevant to the Filipino understanding of poverty and other sources on Filipino mentality

of some well-known Filipino authors will be employed to expound such research topic.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The theme “Poverty and the Filipino Mindset”, as a research problem could well

understood by employing analysis and interpretation based upon the data offered by the

respondents questionnaires. The survey conveys significant meaning in analyzing and

interpreting the problem under discussion, hence, reference and use of these materials

are indispensable in this research. And in order to analyze the problem, an objective

interpretation of these surveyed data is necessary. Such objective interpretation is

possible only by employing the Convenience Sampling Method to determine the

qualitative significant of said research. A descriptive and analytic approach is to be

employed in the entire presentation, analysis and interpretation of this research study.
 Chapter II

LITERATURE REVIEW

Postcolonial Theory on Poverty

The Republic of the Philippines consists of 7,107 tropical islands located in

the

South China Sea northeast of Malaysia. The annual population growth rate is 1.87%

while its current population is approximately more than 100 million people (CIA

Factbook, 2006). Since 1986, the Philippine economy has grown modestly. The country

is well endowed with mineral and non-oil energy resources; and its economy is buoyed

up by remittances from overseas Filipino worker. However, there remain major

problems such as high poverty levels, widespread unemployment, a large government

deficit, and massive external debt. The industrial sector is concentrated in urban areas.

Inadequate infrastructure, transportation, communication, and electrical power inhibit

faster industrial growth (Macionis, 2002).

 The government is seeking to revitalize the economy by encouraging both

foreign

and domestic investment and by restoring free-market forces. The Philippines faces

severe economic challenges; stability when approximately 52% of the population suffers

from debilitating poverty; and job creation for a rapidly expanding work force.

Unemployment and underemployment exceeds 30%. The nation must try to reverse the

ecological deterioration of its heavily populated rural sector while paying of its foreign

debt (Todaro, 1995).

Among the basic concerns of Filipinos, health and nutrition, housing, utilities, and

the environment, and income and consumption stand most in relation to the study

conducted by the researchers (Mangahas, 1976). These concerns reflect the individual

aspiration to obtain a better quality of human life through improved welfare defined by

upward social mobility or conspicuous consumption of luxury goods such as jewelries

and electrical appliances.

Filipinos desire to live long with the absence of infirmity, malnourishment, and

mental disability. They posses an unquestionable, natural need to satisfy their wants

through the sufficient purchase of products and services, which may only be adequately

done through the acquisition of pecuniary gains. It is vital for Filipinos to obtain

satisfactory housing, uncontaminated and ample water supply, affordable electricity,

and unpolluted surroundings. The procurement of such basic physical needs will assist
people to become free from poverty and allow them to create a amore open society with

equal opportunities to select individuals roles (Tullao, 2004).

Based on studies conducted by Vector Pattenden, the inability to provide for

basic

food in terms of calorie intake and shelter increased from 36.8% of the population in

1997 to more than 40% in 2002. Thirty-eight percent of Filipino families do not have a

solid-structure shelter. Access to safe drinking water declined from 81.4% of families in

1999 to 80% in 2002. Twenty-one percent of all families and 44% of families in lower

40% income group have no electricity. Special effort must be made that the citizens of

the less developed regions take an active part in so far as circumstances allow, in their

economic betterment (Mater et Magistra, 1961).

Internalized Racial Oppression

As postcolonial theory indicates, many people today are still feeling the effects of

colonialism and cultural imperialism (Young, 2003). Colonial mentality is one

consequence of colonialism, which is the idea that one has been conditioned to attach

more importance to the values of the dominant culture over one’s own (David &

Okazaki, 2006). Colonial mentality is a form of internalized racial oppression. According

to Speight (2007), internalized racial oppression is the internalization of the dominant

group’s attitude, beliefs and values while devaluing one’s own attitudes, beliefs and

values. In essence, “the dominant group has the power to define and name reality,

determining what is normal, real and correct and in effect, ignores, discounts,

misrepresents, or eradicate the target group’s culture, language and history (Speight,
2007, p.130). Speight (2007) prompted for further research to be done on the

relationship between internalized racial oppression, racial incidents, and psychological

injury. That internalized racial oppression exists and racial incidents happen are

important to note, but calling for a closer look into the effects of psychological injury is

especially important. My study looked into how these incidents are experienced and

how they shaped one’s mental health. How to prevent these psychological injuries and

how to cope will be noteworthy to uncover in further research as well (Speight, 2007).

Identifying and defining internalized racial oppression here is important because it

synonymous with colonial mentality. The concept of colonial mentality is referred to in a

handful of empirical studies (Felipe, 2010; Ferrera, 2011; Murillo, 2009), which I will

delve into more deeply in the ensuing paragraphs.

Colonial Mentality

David and Okazaki (2006b) constructed the colonial mentality scale (CMS) in

order

Measure it in quantifiable way. They broke down colonial mentality into four different

parts. The first is the idea of denigrating the Filipino self, second, denigrating the Filipino

culture or body, third, discriminating against less Filipinos, and finally, tolerating

historical and contemporary oppression of Filipinos. The authors identified five different

ways that colonial mentality manifested which were: internalized cultural and ethnic

inferiority, cultural shame and embarrassment, within-group discrimination, physical

characteristics, and colonial debt, which is this idea that Filipino should be grateful to
the colonizers who came to “save” the Filipinos. David (2008) used this same scale to

measure the rate of depression and how colonial mentality might be related to this

mental illness. This has brought some attention to how colonial mentality might be

related to mental health in the Filipino population.

Murillo (2009) assessed the relationship between ethnic identity, colonial

mentality

and parenting style of Filipinos. The author discovered that a relationship exists

between ethnic identity and parenting style and that no relationship exist between

colonial mentality and ethnic identity (Murillo, 2009). I thought it was interesting that this

researcher did not find a relationship between colonial mentality and ethnic identity,

and my study addressed these concept further. Additionally, Murillo (2009) found that

Filipino do experience colonial mentality, but it does not have a significant relationship

with one’s parenting style, and colonial mentality may develop independent of one’s

values and beliefs about parenting. Murillo acknowledged mental health and included a

clinical/professional application, in that it is important to consider Filipino history in a

person’s experience when providing family therapy or conceptualizing how parenting

style develops.

These studies underscored the importance of empirical support that bolsters the

Idea that the Filipino immigration experience “need to be understood in the context of

colonialism and its most insidious psychological legacy” (David & Nadal, 2013, p.298).

here, David & Nadal (2013) acknowledged colonial mentality and the continued effects

of mental health but focused on the second generation Filipino American experiences

with colonial mentality and mental health.

Decolonization of the Mind

Strobel (1997) conducted a qualitative study on the process of decolonization of

the mind, which is a process of reconnecting with the past to understand the present

and strengthens the cultural connection to the Filipino indigenous culture as a source of

grounding. She followed a group of eight Filipinos in Northern California who immigrated

after 1965 for over a year. She proposed that “critical consciousness is facilitated by the

process of decolonization. She had the group participate in-depth group dialogues and

interviews to discuss and then write about their decolonization experiences. Her

research questions focused on the manifestations of decolonization, the turning points

where participants felt need to reconnect or rediscover their ethnic roots, what

participants did to decolonize, and the role of Filipino community, the education system,

and popular culture in decolonization (Strobel, 1997).

Chapter III

METHODS OF RESEARCH

The conduct of this research is done through a careful analysis and

interpretation

of the given information gathered from the respondents responses. The process is done

through survey research by way of collecting and analyzing the responses of small

samples of a particular group of poor people in the urban areas of Balindong, Lanao del

sur classified under the 4P’s (Pantawid Pamilyang Pililpino) of the DSWD to questions
designed to elicit their opinions, attitudes, and sentiments about the topic “Poverty and

the Filipino Mindset”. Observations enables the researcher to obtain in-depth

information about a certain group. On the other hand, the sample survey allows the

researcher to secure uniform but superficial information about some portion of the

population.

Research Locale of the Study

Participants

The participants of this research study are thirty seven (37) residents of

Balindong,

Lanao del sur from the different barangays and are identified to be members of

DSWD’s 4P’s program who were specifically screened and selected for this purpose.

Age from 30-65 years old.

Materials

The instrument used in this experiment to measure the reliability of the research

is

the Convenience Sampling Formula for the purpose of determining the probability of

understanding the mindset of poor Filipinos in the urban areas of the Municipality of

Balindong, Lanao del sur. Survey questionnaire are to be distributed to each of the
respondents for purposes of eliciting answers from them conveniently designed in the

most comprehensible manner befitting to their level of understanding.

Procedure

The researcher’s preparation of the survey questions for each respondent to

answer is to be done by checking the appropriate boxes provided for in the enumerated

answers of the said questionnaires. The questions are so simple that it can immediately

be answered from even an ordinary person without formal education. The respondent’s

responses would be tabulated for systematic evaluation of their significant connotation

for a meaningful analysis and interpretation.

Chapter IV

PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF DATA

This chapter presents a descriptive-qualitative analysis and interpretation of

data
 gathered through a survey questionnaires conducted at Municipality of Balindong,

Lanao del sur coming from different barangays and who are classified as urban poor

under the criteria set upon by the Department of Social Welfare and Development

(DSWD) of Balindong, Lanao del sur.

This qualitative study entitled: Poverty and the Filipino Mindset has stemmed

from

the personal concern of the researcher to identify the problems among the most

marginalized poor people in the Municipality of Balindong with an income bracket of less

than ten (10 thousand) pesos monthly, with no permanent jobs and who does not own

any house and lot.

The study involves thirty seven (37) key informants. Adopting the Survey

Questionnaires Method, this study focuses on the following specific areas of concern.

a) The common problems of poverty existing in Municipality of Balindong, Lanao del

sur from the Thirty-two (32) barangays and classified as members of the 4P’s

program of the DSWD

b) To determine the socio-economic mindsets of poor people who are in dire

poverty and whose mentality dispossesses them the ability to overcome their

state of affairs to better improve their financial conditions.

c) The questionnaire was specifically formulated to anchor upon the respondents

economic conditions such as property ownership (if they have any), education

and training, ethnicity, socio economic barriers or inequity, environmental

 influence, psychological influences, religious beliefs and social upbringing to

mention a few.

The following tables below shows the total number of participants who

are

members of 4P’s in different barangays of Municipality of Balindong, Lanao del sur. It

also illustrates the various respondents regarding the questions drawn out for them in

the questionnaires.

Table 1

No. of
respondent
%
Question Response Option Rank s

4 4 11.4
I am poor because I was born poor
I am poor because my parents
couldn't find better jobs to support
our daily needs 11 11 31.4

I am poor because my parents cannot

send us to school
2 2 5.7
What do you
consider are the
reasons why you are I am poor because my parents are
poor lazy
3 3 8.5

I am poor because there are no

compelling reasons or motivations for
us to strive 15 15 42.8

Total
35 35 100%

The answers in Table 1 shows that 15 out of the 35 respondents manifest a

situation that they are “poor because they are no compelling reasons or motivations for

them to strive harder.” Although followed by group level 11 respondent who also

manifested the answer “they are poor because their parents could not find a good job to

support their daily needs.

These data clearly indicates that there exist in the minds among the poor people

a kind of hopelessness, blame or an expression of defeat of life’s misery. Hence,

consciously or unconsciously led to belief that fate has something to do with their

situation and so yielding up to the mentality that there are no compelling reasons for

them not to strive harder in life. Perhaps, this mentality is likely the effects of the so

called internalized racial oppression to which according to Speight (2007), is the

internalization of the dominant group’s attitudes, beliefs and attitudes, and values while

devaluing one’s own attitudes, beliefs and values. This study looked into how these

incidents are experienced and how they shaped one’s mental health.

Table 2

No. of
Question Response Option Rank respondents %
Lack of education 7 7 20
lack of opportunities 13 13 37.1
Low self-esteem ( no self confidence) 1 1 2.8
Poor mentality 1 1 2.8
What are some
Timid, not ingenious (walang diskarte) 9 9 25.7
factors that hinder
poor people from No ambition/ low aspiration 4 4 11.4
changing their lives No aspiration or innate desire to change for
for the better the better 0  0  0 

Total 35  35   100%

As illustrated in the table 2 13 out of 35 respondents have mostly responded that

the major factor was lack of opportunities that hinders poor people from changing their

lives for the better. This is followed by 9 out of the 35 respondents who said that being

timid or not ingenious (walang diskarte) was their answer to the same question elicited.

Clearly, this indicates that lack of education is still the common ground why poor people

are timid and they find it hard to look for better opportunities to improve their lives.

Lacked of education grounds the very character of poor individuals from exerting

ingenious effort to better themselves in life. Lack of education and lack of opportunities

are closely interrelated since education is the getaway for all kinds or opportunities to

open to the individuals seeking for means of survival. Aside from educating the mind,

there is a need to conduct a qualitative study on the process of decolonization of the

mind, which as Strobel (1997) expressly enunciated, “a process of reconnecting with the

past to understand the present and strengthens the cultural connection to the Filipino

indigenous culture as the source of grounding. “The decolonization of the mind is the

best anti-dot to liberate the spirit of the people who have long been victimized and

enslaved by the colonizers.

Table 3

No. of
Question Response Option Rank Respondents %

Have the Yes 13 13 37.1 

government
done enough to
help the poor No 22 22  62.8
improve their
lives?
Total 35 35  100%
 Table 3 shown that many of the poor people in our community or society

doesn’t

have faith in government’s effort in helping them alleviate their economic condition.

Despite the programs initiated by the government such as 4P’s program of the DSWD,

many are not convicted that these initiatives are genuinely meant for them and it won’t

improve their lives because it is done for temporary consolation only on the part of

government. In effect, some of the so-called beneficiaries would just take the advantage

in getting the money and use it for capital. Some parents do not even encourage their

children to go to school because they simply wanted them to start working and earn a

living to help augment their financial need. This reality is commonly existing in the rural

communities were the poverty index is higher than those in the urban areas.

The 2015 survey also found that 12.1 percent of the population- roughly 12.18

million Filipinos are living in subsistence or extreme poverty, meaning their earnings are

not enough for them to three meals a day.

According to PSA, the national poverty threshold in 2015 stood ate P10,969 per

month, meaning a family of five needed to earn that much to be able to eat, have

shelter, travel, buy medicine, or go to school, among other life necessities.

 Chapter V

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the evidence gathered from multiple reliable sources, we can make

the

following defensible conclusions:

1. Filipinos are poor not because they have an “obsession with happiness”. In

fact,

There is no evidence that suggests that “contentment” can cause poverty. Through

inferences made from reading the evidence, we can say that it’s possible many Filipinos

are poor simply because they are born poor. Their experiences of poverty in the crucial

years of their mental development negatively affected their capacity to learn and their

ability to regulate negative emotions- factors that may impede their economic progress

as adults. Furthermore, poverty itself impedes their cognitive function, making them

prone to bad decisions that could worsen their situation.

2. Some poor Filipinos are happy not because they have a loser mentality. Some

Poor Filipinos are happy simply because nothing is preventing them from feeling

otherwise. Although depression is twice as common among the poor, poor people who

don’t have depression are not much less happy than rich people themselves. In fact, a

study suggests that, “one’s life circumstances, unless they are very bad indeed, do not

seem to have lasting effects on one’s mood, “implying that there are genetic factors to

be considered when measuring a person’s capacity for happiness.

 3. Happiness has tendency to increase a person’s productivity and make him work

harder. If a person thinks that the problem of poverty is due to a poor person’s lack of

productivity, the scientifically correct thing to do is help them recover their self-esteem

and encourage them to be happy, to improve their cognitive function and increase their

productivity. In any case, one should not call poor people losers because by doing so

will only reinforce the psychological barriers that impede their cognitive functioning.

Based on the same evidence, we can also conclude that Benigno’s article

entitled

“Filipino Obsession with Happiness”, is what keeps them mired in chronic poverty, is

wrong about a lot of things. The debilitating mindset of every Filipino, be they affluent or

lacking is the main cause of poverty in this country. It is in the thinking and believing that

nothing else can be done for one to prosper and have a good life. It is about thinking

only of the self and believing only for the self when one has too much of anything and

not sharing the ‘extras’ to those who are lacking. It is what we all nurture in our mind

that causes poverty and not the government or anybody else. What we think, we act,

and we feel are all the result of an improper mindset with too much religion.

People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history. They are a

marginal

people who know only their own troubles, their own local conditions, their own

neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually neither have the knowledge, the vision, nor

the ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like

themselves elsewhere in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious,

although they are very sensitive indeed to status distinctions. When the poor become
class conscious or members of the trade union organizations, or when they adopt an

internationalist outlook of the world, they are, in the researcher’s view, no longer part of

the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor.

This researcher would not delve much of the accuracy of the measures of

poverty

but he wish to discuss a very fundamental truth about poverty. Poverty is a mindset. It is

not so much about not having food, clothing and shelter but a debilitating hopelessness

to improve one’s financial condition. And he finds it alarming that more than half of our

countrymen are in this situation because he knew how powerful the mind is: whether

you think you can or you cannot, you are right!

So what’s the harsh truth about poverty? It is a mindset as much as reality. That

is

many people feel that they are poor and in need of money without knowing that they

already have what they need. Such is the state of sheer mendicant mindset.

Recommendations:

In poverty studies, education has been considered to be the fulcrum that tips and

Breaks the poverty cycle, the relatively high percentage (38.5%) of families below the

poverty threshold. For Municipality of Balindong, Lanao del sur, this proportion of the

total population is about 32,573. The municipal’s master plan should review the anti-

poverty programs and other related measures being implemented based on the premise

that human development and alleviation of poverty are best achieved through the direct
and combined efforts of people themselves. Human capabilities are best expanded

through their direct exercise. Sectoral biases to addressing poverty should be checked

and more converging efforts and activities should be done in responding to the needs of

the poor masses.

Economic growth did not translate into poverty reduction in recent years. While

the

Country experienced moderate economic growth in recent years, poverty reduction has

been slow. The quality of growth matters and persistent inequality mitigates the positive

impact of growth on poverty reduction. Chronic poverty is concern, and poverty become

a major constraint on the attainment of high levels of sustained growth and the overall

development of the country. The solution to the poverty is thus of public interest.

Benefits will not only accrue to those who get out of poverty but also to society as at

large.

Poverty remains mainly a rural phenomenon through urban poverty is on the rise.

The majority of the poor are still found in rural areas and in the agriculture sector. They

are mostly farmers and fishers. However, there are an increasing number of poor

households in rural areas, typically found in the informal sector.

Poverty levels are strongly linked to educational attainment. The heads of the two

of three people households have only reached elementary education and below. The

poor have large families, with six or more members. Population management will be

critical for an effective poverty reduction strategy.

Many Filipino households remain vulnerable to shocks and risks. This is the highlighted
by the escalating conflict in Mindanao and the current global financial crisis. An effective

poverty strategy must incorporate social protection.

Governance and institutional constraints remain in the poverty responses.

measures to improve must be an important focus of attention in formulating a revised

government strategy. There is a weak local government capacity for implementing

poverty reduction programs. Effective delivery of basic social services and poverty-

related programs at the local levels will hasten poverty eradication.

Deficient targeting in various poverty programs is often related to

unreliable,

inaccurate, and ultimately poverty information, especially at the local level, and partly

due to poor governance in terms of program design and implementation.

Multidimensional responses to poverty reduction are needed. The poverty

problem

Is multi-dimensional, and thus the response should be multi-agency and multi-sectorand

involve multiple stakeholders. Convergences has been the right approach and this must

continue to be practiced more effectively.

Further research on chronic poverty is needed. There are very few micro studies

that examine chronic poverty and how the poor escape poverty traps. these studies are

important in the formulation of more effective policies and programs.

References

Benigno. (2014). “Filipino Obsession with Happiness” is what keeps them mired in

chronic

poverty.

Speight, S.L. Internalized racism: One more piece of the piece of the puzzle. The

counseling Psychologist, 35, 126-134

Oswald, A. Proto, E. Sgroi, D. (2014). “Happiness and Productivity” Retrieved on

October 1, 2014.