How the Philippines Faced Poverty

According to survey conducted by SWS on December 13-16, 2019 which around 13.1 million Filipino families experienced poverty from the last quarter of the year and considered this as the highest self-rated poverty recorded in five years (CNN Philippines, 2020). Poverty is defined as the shortage of income and this issue is all around the world especially in the global south. The definition of poverty in the Philippines can be based on Section 3 of Republic Act 8425 which states that a person who cannot afford in a sustained manner to provide their minimum basic needs of food, health, education, housing and other essential amenities of life (pcw.

gov.ph, 1998). With poverty plaguing in the country, many Filipinos are in danger because of living in the streets for accommodation. With little money to buy food, Filipinos are having struggle to survive every single day on very limited food even though the food supplies are efficient.

And since rice is the main source of food in the Philippines and there is an unequal distribution of income, the result is low demand of food supplies and rice has been replaced with noodles already since it is cheaper than rice. With this, malnutrition is one of the effects of poverty. Saddest part is when people often choose crime and thievery just to survive. Since people do not have jobs, they turn to stealing. There is some reasons why there is poverty in the country such as inequality, lack of quality education, lack of jobs, corruption and natural calamity. Inequality in such a way that in 1994, the richest 20% of the population and their average income was about 10 times that of the poorest 20%. Lack of quality education in which there are only 21 out of the 100 schools which are recognized as good teaching institutions and elementary is compulsory but only 24% of young Filipinos do not attend schools. Usually the reasons are due to absence of school in their area.

One of the reasons is lack of jobs, there are still 2.39 million people with no jobs as of January 2020 (Rivas, 2020). The government estimates that 935, 700 workers are at risk of losing their jobs locally and even abroad this year. Corruption in the country is rampant in which it is not new to Filipinos. Example of this is the NBN-ZTE Deal which the losing bidder for the project went to media and complained that the deal by the government with the winning bidder ZTE is full of anomalies and the supposed deal was brokered by Comelec Chairman Abalos which allegedly will get a hefty commission from the deal and have the guts to bribe other people with ten million dollars for their silence and cooperation.

CALDITO, JOANNA CRISTINE D. INTRO TO ID MTH 10:30-12:00 Natural calamities are hazardous which cause millions worth of damage. A great example of this is the Typhoon Yolanda which costs 14 billion dollars’ worth of damage. (Calamur, 2013). Another thing is the reason why the poverty reduction here in the Philippines is the failure of the economy to grow rapidly and produce quality employment in sectors with large numbers of the poor. Poverty is social evil but we can also contribute to control it. We must maximize our time and energy to help other people. Remember before wasting food in the table, somebody in other part of the globe will sleep hungry and no shelter to live on.

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