Income Gap Widens: RP’s Wealthiest Grew Richer Under Arroyo Term

Income Gap Widens: RP’s Wealthiest Grew Richer Under Arroyo Term

Written by IBON Media

Thursday, 12 April 2007

The gap between the unimaginable wealth of the country’s richest families and the poorest households highlights the yawning income inequalities that further widened under the Arroyo administration, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation. The richest 20% of the population account for 53% of the income pie while the bottom 20% get only 4.63. The poorest 30% of the country’s families, some 4.9 million, had a combined income of P177 billion, according to the 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). This was half of the total net worth of the Philippines’ richest: Jaime Zobel and his family, Lucio Tan and Henry Sy. According to Forbes magazine, as of Feb. 2007 the three had a total net worth of $7.5 billion or P360 billion (at P48:$1). From 1985, the share of the poorest 60% of the population fell by 1.8 percentage points while the richest 20% were able to increase their share by another 1.2 percentage points. “This is a vivid example of the skewed income distribution prevailing in the country, which has worsened since 1985,” said IBON executive editor Rosario Bella Guzman. She added that the income of the richest 10% of the country’s households is 21 times that of the poorest 10 percent. Guzman said the reason for such inequality was the not the failure of so-called economic growth to ‘trickle down’ to the poor, but the monopoly of ownership of the country’s productive assets, such as land and capital, in the hands of a relative few families. This denies the poor the ability to improve their lot even as the rich continue to get richer. This is illustrated by looking at the country’s poorest sectors– marginal peasants, small fisherfolk, the urban poor– who all suffer from extreme marginalization and exclusion from economic resources and the common goods. Unless there is more equitable access to economic assets, the poverty situation in the country will not improve, and indeed, can only get worse, Guzman said.

About 3.3 million households experiencing involuntary hunger

SWS survey: RP hunger at new record-high

Daily Tribune 12/20/2006

A Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey yesterday revealed that the proportion of Filipino families experiencing involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months reached a new record-high of 19 percent or an estimated 3.3 million households.

The previous record-high incidence of household hunger was 16.9 percent, reached in both March and September 2006. The SWS said hunger has been at double-digits for the past eleven consecutive quarters, since June 2004.

The SWS survey, conducted from Nov. 24 to 29 also found 52 percent of families reporting themselves as poor in general, and 40 percent reporting themselves as poor in terms of food.

The study added hunger increased especially in Metro Manila and the balance of Luzon, with hunger rising by almost five points in Metro Manila, from 12.8 percent in September to 17.7 percent in November. It rose by three points in the rest of Luzon, from 14.7 percent in September 17.7 percent in November.

Hunger rose by only one point in Mindanao, from 21.3 percent to 22.3 percent. It declined slightly in the Visayas, from 19.7 percent to 19.0 percent.

According to the survey, moderate hunger, defined as households experiencing it involuntarily “only once” or “a few times” in the last three months, rose from 12.3 percent in the previous quarter to a new record-high 15.1 percent, surpassing the previous record of 12.9 percent in August 2005.

On the other hand, severe hunger, defined as households involuntarily hungry “often” or “always” in the last three months, declined somewhat, from 4.6 percent in September to 3.9 percent in November.

Moderate Hunger rose by over 4 points in Metro Manila (from 8.2 percent to 12.7 percent and in the rest of Luzon (from 10.3 percent to 14.7 percent). It rose by less than two points in the Visayas (from 13.7 percent to 15.3 percent) and remained steady at 17.3 percent in Mindanao.

Severe Hunger went up in Metro Manila (from 4.6 percent to 5.0 percent) and in Mindanao (from 4.0 percent to 5.0 percent). But it declined in the balance of Luzon (from 4.3 percent to 3.0 percent) and in the Visayas (from 6.0 percent to 3.7 percent).

The study also revealed that 40 percent of Filipino households consider themselves as poor based on the type of food their family eats. 27 percent put themselves on the borderline and 32 percent consider themselves as not food-poor.

Household heads’ reports about poverty in general, poverty in terms of food, and hunger are internally consistent.

In the survey, the proportion of households experiencing hunger in the past three months is 30 percent among the self-rated food-poor, compared to only 13 percent among the not food-poor and 10 percent among those on the food-borderline.

The survey has hunger at 25 percent among the self-rated poor, compared to only 13 percent among the not poor and 12 percent among those on the borderline.
Indisputable Hunger