Gov’t Survey Shows No Improvement in Poverty, Income Gap

The share of the poorest 30 percent of the country’s families in 2006 accounted for only 8.6 percent of the total country’s total income, while the top 10 percent account for almost 36 percent. This was almost the same as the 8.5 percent and 36.3 percent recorded in the 2003 FIES.

BY IBON FOUNDATION
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 38, October 29-November 3, 2007

Data from the 2006 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) indicate that poverty and high income inequalities remain an urgent concern that the Arroyo administration needs to address.

Further, using government’s own family living wage, poverty actually increased between 2003 and 2006. Comparing the 2006 FIES to average annual living wages (for a family of six) showed that poverty increased from 82 percent in 2003 to around 86 percent in 2006.

IBON executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman said that the figures underscored the problem of an inequitable economy that favors a few while neglecting the welfare of millions of Filipinos.

In fact, the combined wealth of the 40 richest Filipinos according to Forbes Asia is US$17 billion (P773.5 billion at P45.5:$1), which is equal to the total incomes of nearly 60 percent of Filipino families or almost 52 million Filipinos.

The problem of poverty and inequality, Guzman said, is certain to linger especially in the absence of genuine reform policies that would result in a just redistribution of productive resources in the country. IBON Foundation/(Bulatlat.com)

IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development institution established in 1978 that provides research, education, publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic issues.