The Philippines’ poverty rate declined to 15.5 percent in 2023 from 18.1 percent in 2021, with the latest figures translating to 17.54 million Filipinos living below the poverty line last year, a 2.4-million decline from the 19 million recorded in 2021.

“If food inflation had been lower, of course, the reduction in poverty would have been much, much bigger,” PSA chief and National Statistician Dennis Mapa said in a briefing.

The PSA considers individuals “poor” if their income is insufficient to cover their basic food and non-food needs.

Poverty incidence — the proportion of a population living below the poverty line — also decreased to 10.9 percent in 2023 from 13.2 percent in 2021.

Meaning that there were 2.99-million poor Filipino families who did not have enough income to meet their basic food and non-food needs as of 2023.

Metro Manila had the lowest poverty incidence at 1.8 percent, followed by the Cordillera Administrative Region at 4.4 percent, and the Ilocos Region at 8.4 percent.

The Zamboanga Peninsula, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and Negros Island Region had the highest poverty incidence at 32.4 percent, 24.2 percent, and 22.6 percent, respectively.

The PSA polled 163,256 families from January to December 2023. The agency conducts a household income and expenses survey every two years.

The country’s poverty rate declined last year despite domestic and external challenges, the PSA said.

Meanwhile, the PSA said the threshold for Filipinos not to be regarded as “food poor” is not enough to satisfy their dietary or nutritional needs each day.

This after the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) had pointed out in a Senate hearing that the monthly food threshold for a family of five is P9,581 or about P64 per person per day.

Nutritional needs

Food threshold is the minimum income needed for a family or person to satisfy the basic food demands, “which satisfies the nutritional requirements for economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities.”

At the briefing, Mapa clarified that the P64 criterion per person was developed to reflect the usual dietary items that demand particular nutrients needed by Filipinos.

The P9,581 monthly food criterion was split among family members and roughly calculated on the number of days in a month, arriving at the P64 per person-a-day figure.

“When we set food thresholds and poverty thresholds, we’re establishing the minimum basic needs. That’s the process, the least-cost approach,” Mapa said.

“First, in this process, we need to create a menu. What are the typical foods that can provide energy, protein, and calcium?” he said.

Based on the PSA’s per capita food threshold data, a sample meal bundle can supply 100 percent of energy needs, 123 percent of protein, 119 percent of calcium, 80 percent of iron, 131 percent of Vitamin A, 88 percent of Thiamin, 80 percent of Riboflavin, 249 percent of niacin, and 106 percent of Vitamin C.

“That’s how the bundle is arrived at. In other words, there’s a science to it,” Mapa said.

He stressed, however, that the food requirement is merely the average at the national level, noting that a particular food threshold was drawn up for each region because of the varied food bundles typically eaten in certain areas.

Food threshold

With Region 3 having the highest food threshold of P11,086, each family member living there should be able to spend P71 daily on food to be deemed non-food poor, the PSA said.

Four other regions came in next with Region 4-A at P11,002; National Capital Region (NCR) at P10,972; Region 7 at P10,965; Region 1 at P9,955.

Mapa said that the P64 basic food need was higher than the global poverty line comparison.

“(The lowest is at) $2.15 per person per day in purchasing power parity (...) its equivalent in peso terms is about P54 per day. We are higher than the lower computation from the World Bank,” Mapa said.

He acknowledged, nevertheless, that the criterion is “really not enough.”

“I agree, this P64 per day is just the basic. Most probably a lot of people won’t be happy about it,” he added.

The PSA official indicated that the pandemic caused the postponement of the intended review in 2021, hence the government will change the food level by next year.