Efforts to help lift families from poverty comprise the next phase of the Philippines’s population and development efforts as the government prepares to review the country’s 50-year-old population policy, according to the Popcom. Know more:
ito ang gusto namin tutukan, gumawa ng mga patakaran ang iba’t-ibang ahensiya para tugunan angpoverty. [Couples are now using family planning, and they are now responsible. The next step is to lift them from poverty. Poverty is still high at the household and population level since there are still 26 million who are living below the poverty line. This is what we want to focus on, for agencies to address poverty at the family level],” Perez said.
However, given the consequences of such a move, one of which is inflation, it may be a low-hanging fruit to adjust minimum wages to at least make them on a par with the poverty threshold, which was pegged at P12,082 a month in the first half of 2021 by the Philippine Statistics Authority .THE University of the Philippines Population Institute earlier said each Filipino worker is supporting more than two consumers, leaving little room for savings and investment in their incomes.
The number being supported by each worker takes into consideration the workers and two or more family members who are considered non-productive consumers, or those who could not economically support themselves. “The new administration needs to admit the breadth of the price crisis to undertake real solutions. However, Marcos disagreeing with the PSA-reported inflation figure as not that high tends to understate the structural as well as contingent factors and gives the government an excuse not to solve these,” Ibon said.
It could reach P76.50 if both the excise tax and the value-added tax were to be taken out. As for diesel, the P98-per-liter monitored price can be lowered at P92 if excise taxes were removed and P80.20 if the VAT is also taken out.