Gadon says poverty in PH 'haka-haka lang'

Presidential Adviser for Poverty Alleviation Secretary Larry Gadon on Friday said poverty in the Philippines at present is just "imaginary," citing decreasing poverty rate. 

In an interview on Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon, Gadon also cited the huge volume of people seen in shopping malls and branches of fast food chains, as well as the number of new cars seen on roads.

"Sa totoo lang ‘yang mga nagsasabi na napakahirap ng buhay ngayon ay sila lang ang nagsasabi niyan, haka-haka lang nila 'yan,” he said when asked for his closing message to Filipinos during the interview.

(Actually, those who say that life is very hard today are the only ones saying that, they are only imagining it.)

According to Gadon, crowded malls and branches of fast food chains only shows that the Filipinos' purchasing power is high. 

“Pero ang katotohanan, magpunta ka sa mga mall, punong-puno. Pumunta ka kahit sa mga probinsya, yung mga branches ng [fast food chains], punong-puno. Ibig sabihin, mataas ang purchasing power ng mga Pilipino,” he said.

(But the truth is, go to the malls, they are full. You even go to the provinces, the fast food branches are full. That means the purchasing power of Filipinos is high.) 

“Lumabas ka ng kalsada, napakaraming bagong kotse, napaka-traffic. Anong ibig sabihin niyan? Maraming nakakabili ng kotse, which means maganda ang ekonomiya,” he added.

(You go out to the road, there are so many new cars, so much traffic. What does that mean? Many people are able to buy cars, which means the economy is good.)

From the poverty rate of 24.7% in 2023, Gadon said it has decreased to 23.4% so far this year so far. Without identifying his source, he also the country's poverty rate declined by 1.3%, which represents 11 million Filipinos.

Gadon attributed the improvement to the opening up of the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic, the increase of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter, as well as the rise in employment rate.

According to available data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country's poverty rate dropped to 22.4% in the first half of 2023, a decrease from the 23.7% recorded in the same period in 2021.

The is no available data yet regarding poverty rate for the whole 2023.

As for the employment rate, the PSA early this month reported that the number of unemployed Filipinos increased in March following the effects of the ongoing El Niño phenomenon and the African swine fever (ASF) on the agriculture sector.

The PSA said there were 2 million unemployed Filipinos in March, translating to an unemployment rate of 3.9%, based on the labor force of 51.15 million Filipinos aged 15 and above or a labor force participation rate of 65.3%.

Employed persons, on the other hand, stood at 49.15 million in March 2024, equivalent to an employment rate of 96.1%, which compares with the 48.95 million in February with a 96.5% employment rate, and the 48.58 million in March 2023 with an employment rate of 95.3%.

In his first State of the Nation Address, President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. vowed to achieve a nine percent or single-digit poverty rate by the end of his term in 2028. —KBK, GMA Integrated News