Philippine Christian University

College Department
Sampaloc I, City of Dasmarinas, 4114 Cavite
The Contemporary World

Name: Errol John Villanueva Amoro Date: December 16, 2022

Year and Section: BSED- Social Studies Instructor: Mrs. Joanalyn L. Alcantara, LPT

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS- NO POVERTY

One of the Southeast Asian nations that has more than 7,000 islands is the Philippines. The

Philippines is rich in natural resources. It has extensive coastlines, diverse flora and fauna, fertile,

agricultural land, and abundant mineral deposits. As we can see, it has a wealth of resources,

including minerals, farmland, wood products, and marine and coastal resources that has a significant

role to the lives of the people living in the country. It can add to or make up an estimated 19% of the

country's wealth, that can be seen to its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Despite of this, why is

widespread poverty still an issue?

Poverty is still one of the critical issues or problems facing by the Philippines and its people.

Poverty is not a new issue, in the old days until now many people are still suffering not only in the

Philippines but in different parts of the world. According to the latest official data of Philippine

Statistics Authority (PSA), the total population of the Philippines as of 01 May 2020 is at

109,035,343, and it has 19.99 million individuals living below the poverty line. This represents 18.1

percent of the population. In 2018, there were 17.67 million poor Filipinos. It has a sudden increase of

the numbers of the Filipinos that are considered poor, especially when the Covid-19 pandemic struck

the country between 2018-2021.

The United Nations cites lack of education, unemployment, slow economic growth, and

corruption as the primary causes of poverty. Due to these causes, poverty in the Philippines has a

variety of negative effects that make it challenging for people to survive. Other Filipinos are forced to

eat leftover food, or "pag-pag," found in trash cans and are forced to commit bad deeds like stealing to

survive. Others ask for alms on the road and in various places such as church and others. There are
 Philippine Christian University
College Department
Sampaloc I, City of Dasmarinas, 4114 Cavite
The Contemporary World

other Filipinos who get money by trading waste such as collecting plastics, paper, steel and others.

These are just some of the ways they know how to make a living for our countrymen who belong to

the poor.

One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations is to end poverty in all its

forms everywhere. Eradicating poverty in all its forms remains one of the greatest challenges of the

countries in the world. In the Philippines, there are many programs of the government to address the

poverty in the country. These are the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4P’s), Kapit Bisig Laban

sa Kahirapan – Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDDS),

Sustainable Livelihood Program, Supplementary Feed Program, Social Pension Program and many

others. These programs help to reduce the poverty incidence of the country especially to the regions

that are belong to the rural areas of the country, that are lacking to the basic services of the

government. One of the famous programs is the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4 P’s. The

Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is a national government initiative for human

development that offers conditional cash grants to the poorest of the poor,  to improve their health,

nutrition, and educational status as well as their general well-being. Its design is based on conditional

cash transfer (CCT) programs used in other countries particularly in Latin American and African

nations that have helped millions of people worldwide escape poverty.

 Philippine Christian University
College Department
Sampaloc I, City of Dasmarinas, 4114 Cavite
The Contemporary World

It has started in 2007, during the administration of former President Gloria M. Arroyo. The

government expanded the program in December 2016 during the presidency of Benigno Simeon C.

Aquino III, to reach a total of 20 million Filipinos belonging to 4.4 million households. The program

benefits about 20% of the population, the majority of the nation’s poor. Lastly, it was signed as a law

by the previous President Rodrigo R. Duterte. According to the study, it estimates that this program

will lead to a poverty reduction of 1.4 percentage points per year or 1.5 million less poor Filipinos.

Overall, the Philippines is one of the countries that has many poor people. This can be seen

especially in the rural areas of the country, where most of the people who live there do not have much

access to government services, because they are located far away from the center of a city or province.

On the other hand, our government is doing their best to take steps to lower the number of poor

people in our country. It is also to eliminate the inequality of people in a country, just because of the

state of their lives, such as being poor, in middle, and rich.