Mindanao Still Poorest Island in Nearly A Decade
By Jesus F. Llanto
Researcher, Newsbreak
March 7, 2008
Anti-poverty official says progress in the South impossible with the conflict and lack of infrastructure.
Mindanao has remained the poorest of the three island groups in the Philippines in nearly a decade, and the government’s anti-poverty agency is blaming it on the war and the lack of basic infrastructure in parts of the South.Officials statistics gathered in 2006 and released this week by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that Mindanao had the highest poverty and subsistence incidence among the major island groups in the country.
Poverty incidence in Mindanao reached 38.8 percent, an increase of 1.1 percent from 2003 figures. Incidence of poverty in Luzon and the Visayas was at 20 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
The combined poverty incidence rates in all three islands translate to around 4.67 million families that earned less than what they needed for basic food and non-food needs. According to the NSCB, a family of five needed P6,274 monthly to stay out of poverty in 2006. (Newsbreak/abs-cbnnews.com)
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