Earning PHP 13,900? W. Visayas poverty line draws pushback

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor and Juliane Judilla

A family of five in Western Visayas earning PHP 13,900 or less a month is considered poor under the region’s official poverty threshold, the National Anti-Poverty Commission said – a benchmark a progressive group calls PHP 8,695.05 short of what it actually costs to live.

NAPC Secretary Lope Santos III said the threshold, drawn from Philippine Statistics Authority data, represents the minimum monthly income a family of five needs to meet its basic food and non-food requirements.

“In Western Visayas, the poverty threshold is PHP 13,900 for a family of five. That means if your monthly income is higher than that, you will not be considered poor,” Santos said.

Actual living conditions vary by housing, transportation, health care, education and other household costs, none of which the single figure captures.

Santos said income remains the fastest and most widely used measure of poverty, but the commission continues to treat poverty as multidimensional.

The commission’s broader indicators cover access to social services such as health care, education and insurance; economic opportunity through employment and livelihood; participation in governance and community organizations; and environmental conditions that support safe and healthy living.

Still, the government’s primary measure rests on the PSA’s Family Income and Expenditure Survey.

“The measure we use now, aside from multidimensional poverty, is income. The quickest measure is the monthly income of a family, which is PHP 13,900 in Western Visayas,” Santos said.

He said lacking a single social service does not automatically make a person poor unless multiple deprivations are present.

“The measure is deprivation,” he said.

The PSA conducts the FIES every three years and uses it to update poverty thresholds and incidence estimates. It is the government’s primary statistical basis for measuring poverty and evaluating anti-poverty programs, which makes the threshold more than an academic number — it sets who qualifies for state assistance.

POVERTY INCIDENCE DECLINES

Santos said poverty incidence in Western Visayas has fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic and now sits below its pre-pandemic level.

PSA data showed incidence among the region’s population at 14.2% in 2018, rising to 17.2% in 2021 and falling to 13.7% in 2023.

“We have recovered from the pandemic. Before COVID-19, poverty incidence in Region 6 was more than 14 percent. It increased to 17.2 percent during the pandemic and has now gone down to 13.7 percent, which is even lower than the pre-pandemic level,” Santos said.

“This means the economy has recovered, more people have found jobs, and livelihoods have improved after the pandemic,” he added.

Capiz was the only province in the region to post a steady increase, climbing from 6.2% in 2018 to 9.5% in 2021 and 13.4% in 2023.

Aklan recorded the sharpest decline, dropping from 20.2% in 2021 to 4.6% in 2023 after registering 12.1% in 2018.

“Aklan recorded a very sharp decline in poverty incidence. Almost all provinces showed improvements, except Capiz, whose poverty incidence continued to increase. It may still be recovering from the effects of the pandemic,” Santos said.

To sustain the gains, Santos said Western Visayas should keep investing in agriculture, improve land productivity, expand infrastructure and attract investments that generate jobs.

He also stressed climate resilience, saying disasters can reverse poverty reduction quickly.

“Disaster risk reduction is poverty reduction,” Santos said.

‘THE MATH DOESN’T HOLD’

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan Panay disputed the NAPC position, arguing the government’s threshold falls far below the real cost of basic living.

In a statement, the group said the PSA threshold should be read as a statistical measure, not as an indicator of what a family actually spends.

BAYAN Panay put its own conservative estimate at PHP 22,595.05 a month for a family of five, based on prevailing prices of essential goods and services in Western Visayas as of June 2026.

Food accounts for PHP 13,685 of that budget. Utilities — water, electricity and cooking fuel — come to PHP 3,430.05. Transportation runs PHP 4,680, and household and personal care items PHP 800.

The estimate excludes rent, education, health care, communication, clothing, child care, emergency funds, savings and debt payments.

“Even with these major expenses excluded, the estimated monthly cost of basic necessities is already PHP 8,695.05 higher than the government’s poverty threshold,” BAYAN Panay said.

The group questioned whether families earning just above the official line can be called free from poverty when many still struggle to cover basics.

It warned that poverty measures detached from actual living conditions carry consequences for public policy, budget allocations and social protection programs, potentially leaving families ineligible for assistance.

BAYAN Panay urged the government to adopt a more realistic measure of poverty and the cost of living, strengthen price controls and consumer protection, and cut taxes it said push up the prices of essential goods.

It called specifically for removing or substantially reducing the value-added tax on basic goods and services and the excise taxes imposed under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law, the 2017 statute that raised levies on fuel, sugar-sweetened beverages and other consumer goods. The group said these fall hardest on low-income households.

It also reiterated its demand for a PHP 1,200 daily family living wage.

“The government must address poverty by ensuring that its measurements reflect the realities faced by Filipino families rather than relying solely on statistical thresholds,” BAYAN Panay said.

The two figures are not measuring the same year. The NAPC threshold comes from the 2023 FIES, released in 2024; BAYAN Panay priced its basket in June 2026. The gap between them is partly a gap in time.