The vision of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to eradicate hunger by 2027 and achieve a single-digit poverty incidence by the end of his term in 2028 is right on track as the country’s poverty rate continues to decline, Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian said on Monday (July 22).

Secretary Gatchalian was referring to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report that the country’s poverty rate fell to 15.5 percent in 2023 from 18.1 percent in 2021.

“The preliminary data from the PSA showing that the poor population declined to 17.54 million from 19.99 million in 2023 is a good indicator insofar as the DSWD’s anti-poverty programs are concerned,” Secretary Gatchalian said.

The PSA defines poverty incidence as the proportion of Filipino families with incomes that are not sufficient to buy their minimum basic food and non-food needs as estimated by the poverty threshold.

The DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is the national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven (7) years, to improve health, nutrition and education.

“There is a misconception that 4Ps is ayuda. On the contrary, it is a development program that aims to break intergenerational poverty o yung kahirapan na nasasalin sa mga anak. Eradicating poverty is a long game. The directive of President Marcos is for a whole-of- government, whole-of-nation approach in bringing down the poverty incidence to single digit by the end of his term in 2028,” Secretary Gatchalian explained.

The 4Ps, which was launched in 2008 and institutionalized in 2019 through Republic Act No. 11310 or the 4Ps Act, provides cash grants to 4.4 million households (equivalent to 22 million individuals) whose children are given subsidies to finish elementary and senior high school.

Household beneficiaries of 4Ps are classified as poor and near-poor based on the Standardized Targeting System and the poverty threshold issued by the PSA at the time of selection; have members who are aged zero (0) to eighteen (18) years old or have members who are pregnant at the time of registration; and, are willing to comply with a set of conditions.

Based on the preliminary results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), which the PSA conducted in July 2023 (collected income data from January to June 2023) and January 2024 (collected income data from July to December 2023), the poverty incidence among families was registered at 10.9 percent or equivalent to 3.0 million poor families in 2023.

At the individual level, 15.5 percent Filipinos or about 17.54 million Filipinos were poor in 2023.

PSA data showed that this is equivalent to 17.54 million poor Filipinos last year.

Secretary Gatchalian said the DSWD’s Food Stamp Program: Walang Gutom 2027 was designed to address hunger by targeting 1 million household considered as “food poor” using data from the PSA.

“The fight against hunger is doable and President Marcos is very supportive of this DSWD program which is now on a scale up to 21 provinces from the original five pilot areas in July 2023,” the DSWD chief said.

The FSP aims to reduce the incidence of voluntary hunger experienced by low-income households by providing monetary-based assistance through Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards that can be used to purchase select food commodities from eligible partner merchant store.

The Food Stamp Program also aims to bring down the subsistence incidence, or share of the total population with per capita income lower than the per capita food threshold,  which went down to 4.3 percent from 5.9 percent two years ago based on the PSA report.

The PSA report brings the estimated number of Filipinos whose income was not enough to buy basic food needs to 4.84 million, which is lower than the 6.55 million in 2021.#