P11-K Monthly Makes Family of 5 No Longer Poor- PSA

                                       THE ECONOMIC GAUGE IS CRAZY

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

My wife could not believe that the Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold (APCPT) of P25,744 a year or P10, 725 a month of a family of five in the Philippines, as averagely tallied by the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2018 and released to the public in December 6, 2019, could be enough to sustain their existence.

“Paano sila nabubuhay diyan sa P10, 725 a month masyadong maliit iyan?” she quipped while sipping her brewed coffee.

The computation of the PSA how to get the monthly threshold is: National APCPT P25, 744 divided by 12months equals P2,145 multiplied by five members of a family equals P10, 726 monthly APCPT.

“Iyan ang threshold ng PSA. If you did not fall into it you’re not poor ha ha ha!” I retorted with amusement.

Poor children in the Philippines. Photo Credit: Internet Grab

Despite that miniscule amount, PSA said there were 2, 986, 300 Pinoy families (14, 931, 500 members of households) who were poor in that census.

The missus told me that garong side car riding Ninoy Torres and his garbage collectors from the local government of our village are not poor because they earn bigger amount than the national monthly threshold of  P10,725

A family in Pangasinan has a yearly P 27,760 earning or a monthly equivalent P11, 566 of APCPT in the 2018 census.

North Cotabato, my former province and one of the poorest, has P25,015 yearly APCPT or its monthly equivalent of P10,422.

“Oo naman. Kasi sila Ninoy bukod sa suweldo nila they still earn tips from the households because of the special services they rendered by personally taking in and out those garbage cans and bins and even washing them,” I answered her about the other sources of income of our rubbish collector’s friend.

I told my wife the real barometer of BEING POOR AND NOT BEING POOR is the standard of living of the two households.

“Sa three meals a day, ilang pounds ng karne ng baboy, manok, fish ang kinakain nila to spike their protein, calorie, iron, Vitamins A and C, and other intakes for their nourishment? Iyong dami ng meat and fish consumption separate the better off to the destitute”.

One of the garbage collectors who lived in the slum area of our village in Dagupan City (all of these garbage collectors live there) told me how they wiggled in the squalor of poverty.

SOURCE: PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY (PSA).

 He cited the average numbers of a member of a family, who copulate like rabbits, is seven in that hell -hole. To survive the daily grind, they contend themselves with cheap vegetables for either lunch or supper.

Their meat, if they earn in their toil, is composed of chicken feet, we colloquially called as Adidas, at P60 per kilo and cook them tinola or adobo style.

“Hindi na po kami kumakain ng almusal (breakfast) kape na lang. Diretso na sa trabaho ang may trabaho. Sa pananghalian (lunch) and pang-gabihan (supper) na lang kami kumakain. Sa trabaho pag nag merienda ang construction worker kanin lang pandagdag lakas pag nagtitipid,” he cited.

He said that a poor family whose head works as scavenger contented themselves with three kilos of rice at P105 a day where they sprinkled it (boiled rice) with bagoong (fish paste) in their three or two meals to keep them reinvigorated.

SOURCE: PSA

If the above is the picture of a poor who earned outside the P11, 566 a month Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold in Pangasinan, how do those who fell in the APCTP like in North Cotabato, Sulu, Maguindanao, Zamboanga, Davao Del Norte, and those other top ten poorest provinces in the country fare?

If the P10, 422 is the monthly APCPT in North Cotabato or Cotabato Province, how do the people buttress their protein and other nourishment and their daily needs like soap and toothpaste?

Asin na lang in lieu of the toothpaste Diyos ko po!

The PSA, I told my wife, do not do these census as hao-shiao because it used gauges to measure the threshold of penury.

They are the Bundle in Metro Manila as based on the National Reference Food Bundle.

For BREAKFAST: Scrambled egg and coffee with milk; LUNCH: Nilagang monggo na may dilis at malunggay, Saging latundan, kanin; SUPPER: Pitong tulingan, nilagang kangkong, kanin; MERIENDA: Pandesal

SOURCE: PSA

Provincial Food Bundle as based on the National Reference Bundle: BREAKFAST: Scrambled egg, Kape na may gatas, Kanin o pinaghalong kanin o ma-is; LUNCH: Nilagang ginataang monggo na may dilis at malunggay, saging, kanin o pinaghalong kanin o mais; SUPPER: Pritong isda o nilagang baboy, gulay, kanin o pinaghalong kanin o mais.

MERIENDA: Pandisal o nilangang saba o nilang rootcrop.

Son of a gun, those in the provinces have better foods than those in the snazzy and ritzy high-rises and chrome-and-glass edifices' jungle asphalt Metro Manila where the bulk of the population of the country gravitate because of employment.

The Poverty Threshold, according to PSA in the vernacular, ay ang minimum na kita o kinakailangang halaga ng isang indibidwal o pamilya upang matugunan ang mga pangunahing pangangailangan sa pagkain (basic food requirements) at iba pang mga pangunahing pangangailangan (basic non-food requirements).

For me, however the APCPT is not an accurate measure if whether a Filipino family has escaped the evil of poverty.

The problem is not all head of the family in the Philippine are gainfully employed thanks but no thanks to the unacted amended Public Service Acts Bill that the oligarch in our country successfully lobbied with the Senators despite members of the House of Representatives expeditiously passing it.

Without economic liberalization on utilities like transportation, electricity, telecommunications, mining, oil and gas, the taipans, like those who run the turtle pacing internet, run the show in this pathetic country at the expense of the 108.12 million (2019 United Nations) Filipinos.

READ MY OTHER BLOG/COLUMN:

Is Our Country Going to the Dogs?

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)