Based on data from www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty Covers the first semester of 2012.

1. Philippine Poverty
First Semester, 2012
Leland Joseph R. Dela Cruz
Development Studies Program
School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University

2. When is a person considered
poor? NSCB
“Based on Republic Act 8425, otherwise known as the
Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, dated 11
December 1997, the poor refers to individuals and
families whose income fall below the poverty threshold
as defined by the government and/or those that cannot
afford in a sustained manner to provide their basic
needs of food, health, education, housing and other
amenities of life.”
The poverty threshold “refers to the minimum
income/expenditure required for a family/individual to
meet the basic food and non-food requirements”.

3. How does the government
compute for the poverty line?
1. The government constructs a menu per
region that satisfies basic nutritional
requirements. The government computes
for the cost of that menu. (ex. P38)
2. The government computes for the
proportion of total basic expenditures that is
budgeted for food using survey data. (ex.
69%)
3. The figure obtained in #1 is divided by the
figure obtained in #2. (ex. P38 / 69% =
P55) NSCB

4. What is the Philippine poverty
line (2012)?
Family/ day*
P7,821Family/ month*
Family/ year*
Individual/ day*
Individual/ month*
Individual/ year NSCB
*Unofficial, self-computed. NSCB reports first semester figures which I then
converted
P93,852
P257
P18,770
P1,564
P51.42

5. What is the NCR poverty line
(2012)?
Family/ day*
Family/ month*
Family/ year*
Individual/ day*
Individual/ month*
Individual/ year* NSCB
*Unofficial, self-computed. NSCB reports first semester figures which I then
converted
P20,168
P1,680
P55.25
P100,840
P8,403
P276

6. Regional poverty lines NSCB
Region Threshold Region Threshold
NCR P20,168 VIII P17,978
I P18,448 IX P17,762
II P19,006 X P19,208
III P20,242 XI P19,854
IV-A P19,202 XII P18,468
IV-B P17,054 CAR P16,122
V P18,044 ARMM P20,054
VI P17,914 CARAGA P19,558
VII P18,592

7. Comparing Menus
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/105955/lawmakers-score-poverty-
dip-via-%E2%80%98statistical-magic%E2%80%99
2006
 breakfast included tomato omelette,
coffee for adults, milk for children
and fried rice;
 fried galunggong (round scad),
monggo guisado with malunggay
leaves and small shrimps, boiled rice
and latundan banana for lunch;
 pork adobo, pechay (chinese
cabbage) guisado, boiled rice and
banana latundan for dinner;
 pan de sal with margarine for snack
time.
2009
 the breakfast menu was reduced to
scrambled egg, coffee with milk and
boiled rice
 the lunch menu was trimmed to
boiled monggo with malunggay
leaves and dried dilis (anchovy in
lieu of shrimps);
 the dinner menu was limited to fried
tulingan (a tuna species, instead of
pork adobo), boiled kangkong
(swamp spinach, which is cheaper
than pechay) and boiled rice;
 pan de sal snack would be served
plain without margarine.

8. Self-rated poverty sws.org.ph

9. Poverty incidence,
1st semester 2012 NSCB
 27.9% of Filipinos are poor.
 27.9% of Filipinos earn less than P18,770
a year, P1,564 a month and P51.42 a day.
 22.3% of Filipino families are poor.
 22.3% of families earn less than P93,850 a
year, P7,820.83 a month and P257.123 a
day.

10. Regional poverty incidence
(Families) NSCB
Region
Poverty
Incidence
Region
Poverty
Incidence
NCR 3.8% VIII 37.2%
I 16.7% IX 36.9%
II 19.8% X 35.6%
III 12.2% XI 28.6%
IV-A 11.2% XII 37.5%
IV-B 28.4% CAR 22.6%
V 34.1% ARMM 46.9%
VI 24.7% CARAGA 34.1%
VII 28.8%

11. Least Poor Provinces NSCB
Poverty Incidence
2nd District, NCR 3.1%
1st District, NCR 3.8%
4th District, NCR 3.8%
Cavite, adjacent to NCR 4.1%
Benguet 4.3%
3rd District, NCR 4.9%
Laguna, adjacent to NCR 6.3%
Pampanga, adjacent to NCR 6.4%
Bulacan, adjacent to NCR 6.7%
Bataan 7.3%

12. Poorest Provinces NSCB
Poverty Incidence
Lanao del Sur, Mindanao 68.9%
Apayao 59.8%
Eastern Samar 59.4%
Maguindanao, Mindanao 57.8%
Zamboanga del Norte, Mindanao 50.3%
Davao Oriental, Mindanao 48.0%
Ifugao 47.5%
Sarangani, Mindanao 46.5%
Negros Oriental 45.3%
Masbate 44.2%

13. Poverty trends NSCB
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
Families Individuals
2006
2009
2012

14. Poverty Trends (Families,
2009) NSCB

15. Poverty Trends (Individuals,
2009) NSCB

16. Poverty trends

17. Philippine Poverty
First Semester, 2012
Leland Joseph R. Dela Cruz
Development Studies Program
School of Social Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University