Palace: Fight vs poverty continues

Informal settlers in Metro Manila. Saiko3p / Shutterstock

MANILA — Amid the growing poverty incidence, as noted by a nationwide survey, Malacañang said that the administration continues to focus on programs that aim to alleviate poverty in the country.

This, according to them is regardless of the poll results on the country’s self-rated poverty incidents.

“Our fight against poverty continues. These surveys are helpful, but we note also that we continue to address this part of the concerns not just overnight, on a very consistent basis and in a long-term manner,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., meanwhile, cited figures to counter the SWS survey results.

Among the figures cited is the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) of the Philippine Statistics Authority indicating that “poverty incidence eased” to 24.9 percent in 2013 compared to 27.

9 percent in 2012.

“The same FIES also showed subsistence incidence or the proportion of extremely poor Filipino individuals who could not afford to meet basic food requirements, also declined during the period from 13.4 percent in 2012 to 10.7 percent in 2013,” Coloma noted.

Lacierda, however clarified that they are not questioning the methodology of the SWS but said that they believe that the government’s own survey is more comprehensive as it has more respondents.