Philippines sees poverty reduction target changed from 14% to as low as 10%

The Philippines may revise its target to reduce poverty incidence from 14% when President Rodrigo Duterte steps down in 2022 to only between 10% to 12%.

Buoyed by the latest poverty statistics, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said it would be a “walk in the park” to reach the 14% target as early as next year given that the poverty incidence had already dropped to 16.6% in 2018.

“It’s really going to be exceedingly satisfying for everybody I think if we’re able to bring down poverty incidence even to 11%,” Pernia said at a news conference in Malacañang.

“We will probably change our target for the midterm update of the PDP [Philippine Development Plan] from 14% by 2022, we’ll make it to 10-12% to be sure," he added.

Pernia said the proposed new target was “possible” to attain and “quite reasonable.”

He said the government had almost reached the target to lift six million Filipinos out of poverty by 2022 as 5.9 million have already been lifted out of poverty as of last year.

The government attributed the latest poverty incidence figure to improved labor market conditions that increased the salaries and wages of the poor.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, there were 17.6 million Filipinos who lived below the poverty threshold estimated at P10,727 on average for a family of five per month in 2018.

The poverty threshold is the minimum income that a household needs to meet the basic food and non-food requirements in order not to be considered poor.

“No frills, no fancy items there,” Pernia said. “I am sure many families are subsisting with that kind of budget.” —NB, GMA News