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Philippines Extent of Poverty
Individuals are said to be in absolute poverty when they are
unable to obtain at least a specified minimum of the food,
clothing, and shelter that are considered necessary for continued
survival. In the Philippines, two such minimums have been
established. The poverty line is defined in terms of a least-cost
consumption basket of food that provides 2,016 calories and 50
grams of protein per day and of nonfood items consumed by
families in the lowest quintile of the population. In 1988 the
poverty line for a family of six was estimated to be P2,709 per
month. The subsistence level is defined as the income level that
allows purchase of the minimum food requirements only.
In 1985 slightly more than half the population lived below
the poverty line, about the same proportion as in 1971. The
proportion of the population below the subsistence level,
however, declined from approximately 35 percent in 1971 to 28
percent in 1985. The economic turndown in the early 1980s and the
economic and political crisis of 1983 had a devastating impact on
living standards.
The countryside contained a disproportionate share of the
poor. For example, more than 80 percent of the poorest 30 percent
of families in the Philippines lived in rural areas in the
mid-1980s. The majority were tenant farmers or landless
agricultural workers. The landless, fishermen, and forestry
workers were found to be the poorest of the poor. In some rural
regions--the sugar-growing region on the island of Negros being
the most egregious example--there was a period in which
malnutrition and famine had been widespread.
Urban areas also were hard hit, with the incidence of urban
poverty increasing between 1971 and 1985 by 13 percentage points
to include half the urban population. The urban poor generally
lived in crowded slum areas, often on land or in buildings
without permission of the owner; hence, they were referred to as
squatters
(see Urban Social Patterns
, ch. 2). These settlements
often lacked basic necessities such as running water, sewerage,
and electricity. According to a 1984 government study, 44 percent
of all occupied dwellings in Metro Manila had less than thirty
square meters of living area, and the average monthly expenditure
of an urban poor family was P1,315. Of this, 62 percent was spent
on food and another 9 percent on transportation, whereas only P57
was spent on rent or mortgage payments, no doubt because of the
extent of squatting by poor families. About 55 percent of the
poor surveyed who were in the labor force worked in the informal
sector, generally as vendors or street hawkers. Other activities
included service and repair work, construction, transport
services, or petty production. Women and children under fifteen
years of age constituted almost 60 percent of those employed. The
majority of the individuals surveyed possessed a high school
education, and 30 percent had a skill such as dressmaking,
electrical repair, plumbing, or carpentry. Nevertheless, they
were unable to secure permanent, full-time positions.
Data as of June 1991
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