Single-digit poverty rate by 2028? With political will, it’s possible

The quest to eradicate poverty is an ongoing challenge that has confounded governments worldwide for centuries. Even the sharpest minds, guided by science, math, and technology are still finding it difficult to find an encompassing solution to lift the lives of 700 million people out of poverty.

The Philippines is not spared as there are Filipinos who are part of that 700-million number. One just has to look around to see glaring signs of economic challenge. This observation is supported with data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) when it released a report last Dec. 22, 2023 showing that there are still millions of Filipinos who are living in poverty.

However, what’s noteworthy in the report is the decline in the poverty incidence among families in the first semester of 2023, dropping to 16.4 percent from 18 percent in the same period of 2021. According to the PSA, this decrease is “equivalent to 230,000 households escaping poverty.” In terms of population, “poverty incidence decreased from 23.7 percent to 22.4 percent, or 895,260 less poor Filipinos.”

This is indeed a positive development. While the 16.4 percent still represents a significant portion of the population, the reduction in poverty incidence can be seen as encouragement for the administration in its pursuit of achieving a single-digit poverty incidence by 2028.

“The Marcos administration remains focused on its priority to substantially reduce poverty to a single-digit level,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan. “With our priorities in check, we remain committed to achieving our AmBisyon of a ‘matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay para sa lahat’ (strong, comfortable, and stable life for all), where no one is poor and no Filipino is left behind.”

The PSA report could serve as a guide on how to distribute efforts in poverty eradication. It showed that poverty incidence decreased in 15 out of the 17 regions from 2021 to 2023, declining significantly in NCR, CAR, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, SOCCSKSARGEN, and Caraga. Though poverty incidence decreased in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), it still remains the highest in the country.

The administration credits the improvement in the numbers to the “decision to fully open the economy and lift all Covid-19 restrictions in the country starting in 2022… (which) has allowed the nation to recover from the unprecedented, combined impact of the pandemic and the government’s policy responses to the crisis.”

Moving forward, Balisacan said that the administration will ensure the effective implementation of various initiatives and interventions in the social sector to reduce poverty at both the national and regional levels. These include the “effective implementation of the new Social Protection Floor that institutionalizes basic social security guarantees, the passage of the Trabaho Para sa Bayan Act and the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino Program, as well as the Walang Gutom 2027 Food Stamp Program.”

The set of data is an encouraging piece of news at the end of the year, suffusing the Filipino people with hope and encouraging them to do more for the country in 2024. The dip in poverty incidence is a good indicator that we are headed toward the right path. If it is impossible to totally eradicate poverty now, then working toward single-digit poverty incidence is a good goal. Once it is achieved (hopefully) in 2028, then with political will, we can all work together toward a much loftier goal.