5 Philippine Poverty Incidence, 1991-2014

Source: Balisacan 2015

Moreover, our performance in poverty reduction vis-à-vis our Asian neighbors has been weak primarily because of the “lost decade” in the 2000’s, which is characterized by low income growth and high inequality of access to employment and social development (Balisacan, 2015 p.13)

This observation by Balisacan (2015) was confirmed by the alternative assessment in the 2016 UP NCPAG Public Lectures on the Aquino Administration and Presidency. Despite the prioritization of poverty, alleviation assessors from the academe lament the still high poverty incidence especially when compared with the statistics of neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. Both point to jobless growth, as the reason why poverty incidence in the country remains high. Both academics also posed criticism to the DSWD flagship program Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), in particular the inclusion and exclusion errors, and the conditionalities that come with the cash transfers. Prof. Ofreneo and Prof. Raquiza both stated that interventions such as 4Ps do not necessarily address the root cause of poverty. They both noted the shrinking industrial and agricultural sectors, which are both labor-intensive sectors. Both concluded that a structural transformation is needed to truly address poverty.

The PNoy administration claims to have brought down the unemployment rate from 7.4% in 2010 to 5.5 in January 2016. Similarly, the underemployment rate declined from 19.3% in 2011 to 18.3% in 2016. Furthermore, under the PNoy administration’s watch, employment expanded by more than 4 million. However, the Philippine office of the International Labor Organization (ILO) said that the expansion is “just sufficient to keep pace with the rapid growth in the labor force.” Relative to our neighbors, the Philippine unemployment rate is the highest in the Southeast Asian region. ILO also reported that in 2013, around 14.6 million workers were vulnerably employed (defined as either own-account or contributing family workers) who are less likely to have social protection and are more vulnerable in the event of economic and environmental crisis.

Taking into account the vulnerable employment statistics of the different Southeast Asian countries, the combined unemployment and vulnerable employment rate of the Philippines fare better than other countries in the region as shown in Table VII.11.

Source: ILO Trends Econometric Models (2014) as cited in ILO (2015)

As regards provision of health care, the PNoy administration earned the commendation of alternative assessor Dr. Jaime Galvez-Tan, a former Health Secretary during the Ramos administration. In particular, Dr. Galvez-Tan lauded the administration’s commitment and political will to implement the universal health care agenda through the banner program Kalusugang Pangkahalatan. This commitment of the administration is manifested in the prioritization of health in the annual budget—from Php28.7 billion in 2010 to Php87.6 billion in 2015—as well as in the enactment of landmark legislations such as the Universal PhilHealth Coverage Law, Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for Senior Citizens, Sin Tax Law, and Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Law.

The Department of Health implemented the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) that saw the construction of 2,862 barangay health stations, 2,626 rural health units/urban health centers,144,685 LGU hospitals, 70 DOH hospitals, and 14 hospitals. However, Dr. Galvez-Tan pointed out that there are still gaps in terms of health facilities and staff complement particularly in remote areas. According to Dr. Galvez-Tan, the priority should be more on the access to primary health care especially in poor and remote communities.

In the 2015 Socioeconomic Report of NEDA, the following issues were identified as problem areas in health: • alarming increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases; • prevalence of underweight children; • non-improvement in the number of births attended by skilled health workers; • increase in the incidence of teenage pregnancy; • gaps in health facilities and services; and • low percentage of PhilHealth members reimbursing health expenditures.

With regard to the implementation of agrarian reform program, the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) reported its accomplishment in the land acquisition and distribution (LAD) and leasehold operations. DAR admitted that their accomplishments were quite low compared with their projections. Despite decades of implementation of the agrarian reform program, productivity of farms and income in the agriculture sectors remain low, thus, failing to address rural poverty. Assessors point to the lack of support services such as credit, marketing and technical assistance as reasons why beneficiaries fail to break away from poverty.

Economic Development

Major strides and gains have been achieved by the PNoy administration as far as economic growth is concerned, bolstered in large part, as the government claimed, by the anti-corruption platform that catapulted Aquino to the presidency. According to Balisacan (2015), the Philippines is no longer the “sick man of Asia” (Fig. VII.5). Resurgence began in 2010 when the country experienced “structural break” aimed at higher growth trajectory. In the latter, investment and industry have become the major drivers of GDP growth. Specifically, private consumption on the demand side, and services on the supply side, have been the major drivers of growth. Supported by sound economic fundamentals, the 2010-2014 average growth was 6.3%, the highest five year average in the last 40 years. Growth rate in 2014 was 6.1%, which is considered high by the standard of developing countries. In 2015-2016 (Figs. VII.6, VII.7). 207