Saturday, August 09, 2008 Poverty incidence in S. Mindanao up by 2.1% By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE regional head of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), a national policy making and coordinating body on statistical matters, revealed Wednesday that poverty incidence in Davao Region has increased between 2003 to 2006.
Estrella Turingan, NSCB head in Southern Mindanao, said during the 9th anniversary of the Club 888 press forum at the Marco Polo Davao, that poverty incidence of families, or the proportion of families with per capita income below the poverty threshold, went up by 2.1 percent from 28.5 percent in 2003 to 30.6 percent in 2006.
"Poverty incidence report comes every three months, the increase or decrease of the incidence depends on the income and expenditures survey of the National Statistics Office," Turingan said.
Turingan added that NSCB uses the data gathered by the NSO. The Board also does the estimation of the gross domestic product (GDP) and the gross regional domestic product (GRDP).
The increase in the poverty incidence in Davao Region, however, still made it as the lowest in Mindanao in terms of the proportion of poor families.
Turingan said in 2006, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm), was identified to have the highest poverty incidence among families in Mindanao with 65.3 percent, followed by Caraga Region with 45.5 percent, Western Mindanao with 40.2 percent, Northern Mindanao with 36.1 percent, and Central Mindanao with 33.8 percent.
Meanwhile, among the provinces in Davao Region, Davao Oriental was cited to have the highest number of poor families in 2006 with 41 out of 100 families classified as poor, while Davao del Sur had the largest drop in poverty incidence of families with 1.2 percent decrease in 2006, which made the province the least poor among the provinces in the region with only 23 out of 100 families categorized as poor.
"We could not do something to minimize the poverty incidence. What we can only do is present the report to the local development councils, who use the information in coming up with their development plan," Turingan said.
Turingan added that undertakings to minimize the poverty incidence in the region is also one of the works of the National Economic Development Authority (Neda) in which NSCB was been a part.
Foremost among the objectives of the NSCB is to develop an orderly Philippine Statistical Survey capable of providing timely, accurate, relevant, and useful data for the government and the public for planning and decision-making.
