MANILA, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- Massive poverty remains a problem in the Philippines despite its much vaunted growth.
The Philippines posted a record 7.3 percent GDP growth in 2010, but such growth failed to lift most Filipinos from poverty. The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) reported Tuesday that poverty incidence in the Philippines hit 26.5 percent in 2009. This is little changed from 26.4 percent recorded in 2006 -- the last time that a poverty survey was conducted.
A total of 23.1 million of Filipinos -- about a third of the country's 90 million populace -- are still subsisting on below 2 U. S. dollars per day. This figure which is considered among the highest in Southeast Asia.
NSCB Secretary General Romulo A. Virola estimates that government needs to reduce poverty incidence by 2 percentage points every year to meet its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of slashing poverty incidence by half in 2015.
Analysts are not surprised that the poor are the last to benefit from the country's economic gains.
Leonor Magtolis-Briones, lead convener of advocacy group Social Watch Philippines, said that as long as the unemployment rate remains high, people won't be able to escape from poverty.
Economic growth hardly dented the country's high unemployment and underemployment rate. In its latest global employment report issued last month, the International Labour Office (ILO) said that "employment growth in the Philippines slowed considerably in the second quarter of 2010, despite the faster economic growth that was achieved in the first quarter."
The National Statistics Office reported early this week that unemployment rate in the Philippines in 2010 was at 7.3 percent, slightly lower than the 7.5 percent rate in 2009. About 2.9 million Filipinos were unemployed in 2010. The number of underemployed workers in 2010 was 6.8 million, representing an annual underemployment rate of 18.7 percent.
Lawrence Jeff Johnson, director for ILO's country office in Manila noted that more than the lack of jobs itself, it is the quality of jobs available that prevented poor Filipinos from escaping the plight. A lot of poor Filipinos are among the so- called "vulnerable workers" -- working on low paid jobs that don't offer social security, health insurance and other benefits. These "vulnerable workers" include pedicab drivers, street vendors and unpaid family workers.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. is optimistic that private investments in tourism and agriculture combined with the government's Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program will ensure that millions will be lifted out of poverty.
"I think the social programs that the government has continued and expanded will have a good chance in catching those really at the bottom of the spectrum and be able to push a bit some of them forward," he said.
But Briones is critical of the government's CCT program.
"The government's CCT has no exit program. How long would you continue giving cash dole outs to the poor?" she said, adding that the more sustainable solution to the poverty problem is to create more jobs.
"But how do you solve joblessness? For that you have to look at the national budget," she said.
Briones said that instead of pouring money in CCT, the government should invest in infrastructure and agriculture -- which will provide more jobs to people. She also advised that more government funds should go to Visayus and Mindanao -- as most of the country's poor are living in central and southern Philippines.
ILO's Johnson suggested that the government and the private sector should invest on workers to raise productivity and enable workers to enjoy higher wages. Street vendors, for instance, can be trained to become service workers in hotel and restaurants.
Johnson added there's also a need to address the current job mismatch. For instance, Johnson said that there are a big number of unemployed nursing graduates. On the other hand, there's a shortage in skilled and in demand medical transcriptionist. Johnson said skilled professionals can be trained for jobs which has a strong demand in the market.
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