TODAY, 24 March 2015, is World TB Day. We are resposting this infographics from the International Committee of the Red Cross that provides a glimpse into the challenges posed by TB in the confines of Philipine jails and prisons.
Click here to know more about their work. in detention centers to enhance TB case detection, and provide early treatment, in two pilots sites – the New Bilibid Prison and the Quezon City Jail.
INFOGRAPHICS by ICRC
INFOGRAPHICS by Cong B. Corrales
Click on the infographics below to read our 2012 article, “The Hidden Costs of War in Mindanao.”
INFOGRAPHICS by Cong B. Corrales
MORE Filipinos slipped to poverty last year but this “temporary setback” could be reversed soon this year. Or so the government believes.
The assurance came today, March 12, from the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) that acknowledged that increase in poverty incidence in the country by 1.2 percentage points in the first semester of 2014.
By NAPC’s data in 2013, 1 in 4 Filipinos or 24.9 percent or 1 in 4 live in poverty. In terms of number of families, poverty incidence is placed at 19.1 percent or 19 out of every 100 Filipino families, roughly equivalent to 24.3 million Filipinos.
Poverty Incidence refers to the count of poor individuals/families; those whose income fall below the poverty threshold, which in turn refers to the required minimum income/expenditure to meet the basic food & non-food requirements.
The national benchmark is that a family of five should earn at least P8,022 a month to be considered non-poor.
Of the total number of poor Filipinos in 2013, however, at least 10.7 percent or 11 in 100 citizens endure extreme poverty or could not meet basic food requirements. This figure, NAPC said, is 2 percent than the 2012 poverty statistics. NAPC said “around 2.5 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty from 2012.”
The ‘”food threshold” income of P5,590 monthly is what a family of five needs to “meet the basic food needs that will satisfy the nutritional requirements for economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities.”
According to NAPC, the uptick in the proportion of poor Filipinos in 2014 “was not enough to negate the 3.3 percent reduction recorded in the same period in 2013.”
NAPC, in a press statement, said it hopes that in time, poverty incidence would dip again. The 2.3 percent reduction in 2013 “and other relevant factors will probably push poverty incidence for 2015 back toward a declining trajectory,” it said.
Poverty incidence refers to the count of individuals whose income fall below the poverty threshold, which in turn refers to the minimum income to meet the basic food and non-food necessities.
NAPC noted that recent monthly data showed that the inflation rate in February 2015 was a moderate 2.5 percent, similar to the food inflation rate in the first half of 2013.
“The price of rice in particular, an indicator of food inflation, has also stabilized at a 2.7 percent rate. This is not as steep a rise in the price of the commodity as 2014,” NAPC said. “If increases in food prices remain as they are and if the average income of the poor continue to grow on pace with 2013 and 2014, we will be seeing poverty on the decline once again.”
A different situation occurred in 2014, it said, “when high food prices and the after-effects of super typhoon Yolanda caused the reversal in poverty incidence last year.”
NAPC explained: “During the first six months of 2014, food prices spiked to 6.6 percent while non-food prices went up to 2.7 percent. This very high food inflation resulted in a higher poverty threshold of 9.4 percent or P10,534, and a food threshold of 9.5 percent or P7,350, more than three times the level in 2013.”
Interestingly, according to NAPC. “over the same period, the average income of the poor actually rose to 9.4 percent, which is the main reason why the subsistence incidence, or the number of poor Filipinos whose income was not enough to buy the minimum food requirements, remained flat at 10.5 percent for 2013 and 2014.”
But “had the income of the poor increased by a lesser rate, then the impact of food inflation on poverty would have been greater, setting the country’s poverty incidence back to the 2012 level.”
In NAPC’s view, “the increase in poverty incidence, therefore, can be traced to an increase in the number of the non-food poor, those who can afford to buy the minimum food requirements but cannot afford other basic necessities like health and education.”
In short, NAPC said, the additional number of the poor counted in 2014 could have been non-poor earlier. “From the data, we can say that some of those who became poor in the first half of 2014 were originally non-poor but are nonetheless vulnerable to shocks caused by calamities and price increase of food, what with their incomes only slightly higher than the poverty threshold.”
It is NAPC’s prognosis that “the increase in poverty incidence in the first half of 2014 is a temporary setback that can be reversed next year given a continuation of present conditions.”
NAPC was established in 1997 “to serve as the coordinating and advisory body for the implementation of the social reform and poverty alleviation agenda.”
A small and poorly funded agency under the Office of the President, in law NAPC is supposed to perform myriad functions, including:
• Coordinate with different national and local government agencies and the private sector to assure full implementation of all social reform and poverty alleviation programs;
• Coordinate with local government units in the formulation of social reform and poverty alleviation program for their respective areas in conformity with the National Anti-Poverty Action Agenda;
• Recommend policy and other measures to ensure the responsive implementation of the commitments under the SRA;
• Ensure meaningful representation and active participation of the bank sectors;
• Oversee, monitor and recommend measures to ensure the effective formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies, programs and resource allocations and management of social reform and poverty alleviation program;
• Advocate for the mobilization of funds by the national and local governments to finance social reform and poverty alleviation programs and capability building activities of people’s organizations;
• Provide financial and non-financial incentives to local government units with counterpart resources for the implementation of social reform and poverty alleviation programs; and
• Submit an annual report to Congress including, but not limited to, all aspects of its operations of programs and project implementation, financial status ad other relevant data as reflected by the basic reform indicators. - PCIJ, March 2015
MORE Filipinos slipped to poverty last year but this “temporary setback” could be reversed soon this year. Or so the government believes.
The assurance came today, March 12, from the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) that acknowledged that increase in poverty incidence in the country by 1.2 percentage points in the first semester of 2014.
By NAPC’s data in 2013, 1 in 4 Filipinos or 24.9 percent or 1 in 4 live in poverty. In terms of number of families, poverty incidence is placed at 19.1 percent or 19 out of every 100 Filipino families, roughly equivalent to 24.3 million Filipinos.
Poverty Incidence refers to the count of poor individuals/families; those whose income fall below the poverty threshold, which in turn refers to the required minimum income/expenditure to meet the basic food & non-food requirements.
The national benchmark is that a family of five should earn at least P8,022 a month to be considered non-poor.
Of the total number of poor Filipinos in 2013, however, at least 10.7 percent or 11 in 100 citizens endure extreme poverty or could not meet basic food requirements. This figure, NAPC said, is 2 percent than the 2012 poverty statistics. NAPC said “around 2.5 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty from 2012.”
The ‘”food threshold” income of P5,590 monthly is what a family of five needs to “meet the basic food needs that will satisfy the nutritional requirements for economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities.”
According to NAPC, the uptick in the proportion of poor Filipinos in 2014 “was not enough to negate the 3.3 percent reduction recorded in the same period in 2013.”
NAPC, in a press statement, said it hopes that in time, poverty incidence would dip again. The 2.3 percent reduction in 2013 “and other relevant factors will probably push poverty incidence for 2015 back toward a declining trajectory,” it said.
Poverty incidence refers to the count of individuals whose income fall below the poverty threshold, which in turn refers to the minimum income to meet the basic food and non-food necessities.
NAPC noted that recent monthly data showed that the inflation rate in February 2015 was a moderate 2.5 percent, similar to the food inflation rate in the first half of 2013.
“The price of rice in particular, an indicator of food inflation, has also stabilized at a 2.7 percent rate. This is not as steep a rise in the price of the commodity as 2014,” NAPC said. “If increases in food prices remain as they are and if the average income of the poor continue to grow on pace with 2013 and 2014, we will be seeing poverty on the decline once again.”
A different situation occurred in 2014, it said, “when high food prices and the after-effects of super typhoon Yolanda caused the reversal in poverty incidence last year.”
NAPC explained: “During the first six months of 2014, food prices spiked to 6.6 percent while non-food prices went up to 2.7 percent. This very high food inflation resulted in a higher poverty threshold of 9.4 percent or P10,534, and a food threshold of 9.5 percent or P7,350, more than three times the level in 2013.”
Interestingly, according to NAPC. “over the same period, the average income of the poor actually rose to 9.4 percent, which is the main reason why the subsistence incidence, or the number of poor Filipinos whose income was not enough to buy the minimum food requirements, remained flat at 10.5 percent for 2013 and 2014.”
But “had the income of the poor increased by a lesser rate, then the impact of food inflation on poverty would have been greater, setting the country’s poverty incidence back to the 2012 level.”
In NAPC’s view, “the increase in poverty incidence, therefore, can be traced to an increase in the number of the non-food poor, those who can afford to buy the minimum food requirements but cannot afford other basic necessities like health and education.”
In short, NAPC said, the additional number of the poor counted in 2014 could have been non-poor earlier. “From the data, we can say that some of those who became poor in the first half of 2014 were originally non-poor but are nonetheless vulnerable to shocks caused by calamities and price increase of food, what with their incomes only slightly higher than the poverty threshold.”
It is NAPC’s prognosis that “the increase in poverty incidence in the first half of 2014 is a temporary setback that can be reversed next year given a continuation of present conditions.”
NAPC was established in 1997 “to serve as the coordinating and advisory body for the implementation of the social reform and poverty alleviation agenda.”
A small and poorly funded agency under the Office of the President, in law NAPC is supposed to perform myriad functions, including:
• Coordinate with different national and local government agencies and the private sector to assure full implementation of all social reform and poverty alleviation programs;
• Coordinate with local government units in the formulation of social reform and poverty alleviation program for their respective areas in conformity with the National Anti-Poverty Action Agenda;
• Recommend policy and other measures to ensure the responsive implementation of the commitments under the SRA;
• Ensure meaningful representation and active participation of the bank sectors;
• Oversee, monitor and recommend measures to ensure the effective formulation, implementation and evaluation of policies, programs and resource allocations and management of social reform and poverty alleviation program;
• Advocate for the mobilization of funds by the national and local governments to finance social reform and poverty alleviation programs and capability building activities of people’s organizations;
• Provide financial and non-financial incentives to local government units with counterpart resources for the implementation of social reform and poverty alleviation programs; and
• Submit an annual report to Congress including, but not limited to, all aspects of its operations of programs and project implementation, financial status ad other relevant data as reflected by the basic reform indicators. - PCIJ, March 2015
NO SAFE WATER and toilets in homes mostly not powered by electricity. Far fewer doctors and health facilities care for their babies and mothers. They die up to 10 years earlier than most Filipinos across the nation.
Yet still, the people of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) have had to flee their homes incessantly on account of intermittent clashes between soldiers and armed groups.
ARMM, home to 3,256,140 Filipinos as of the 2010 census, is a stodgy record of ill-starred stats.
As of 2011, of the 455 waterless municipalities in the country, 94 are in the five provinces of ARMM, according to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies’ repot titled “Water Financing Programs in the Philippines: Are We Making Progress?”
These 94 waterless towns of ARMM come from the region’s five provinces — 36 in Lanao del Sur, 20 in Maguindanao, 16 in Sulu, 11 in Tawi-Tawi, and 11 in Basilan.
More detailed official data as of 2003 showed that 8 of 10 people in Tawi-Tawi, 7 of 10 in Basilan and Sulu, five of 10 in Maguindanao and 4 of 10 in Lanao del Sur did not have access to improved water sources.
The number of households with access to safe water supply as of 2007 revealed that of Marawi City’s 26,009 households, only 5,064 have access to safe water supply (19%), and only 13,400 or half the households have sanitary toilets.
Electricity also remains a scarce public good in ARMM. While 40 percent of Lanao del Sur’s population had power as of 2007, people located elsewhere in ARMM continue to linger in the dark, literally. Up to 63 percent of the people in Basilan; 76 percent in Maguindanao; and 83 percent in both Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, hade no electricity as of that year.
By another index, the number of rural health units or RHUs in the nation as of 2011, ARMM fares just as poorly. Of the 2,314 RHUs in the Philippines, only 119 are in ARMM – 42 in Lanao del Sur, 33 in Maguindanao, 19 in Sulu, 13 in Basilan, and 12 in Tawi-Tawi, according to the Department of Health.
The number of district and provincial hospitals in ARMM presents a picture just as lean and bad – the Philippines has 584 district hospitals and 89 provincial hospitals. However, the slice of the pie that goes to ARMM is a pithy 24 district hospitals and two provincial hospitals, or one each in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi. None exists as yet for the provinces of Maguindanao, Basilan, and Lanao del Sur.
In terms of the latest infant mortality rate data, the National Statistical Coordination Board reported that in the Philippines, an average 23 babies per 100,000 population die each year before reaching age 5 as of 2006. The figure for ARMM was much more at 33.
The proportion of children under a year old who had been immunized against measles stood at 81 percent across the nation in 2003. The ARMM figure is much lower at 76.9.
When mothers give birth, attendance and care by skilled health personnel would be most safe and ideal, In the Philippines as of 2006, seven in 10 or 70.1 percent of mothers giving birth got this service as of 2006. In ARMM, only 49.1 percent or less than five in 10 got the service.
But the sorriest number of all pertains to the life expectancy of men and women in ARMM. As of the latest 2000 data, across the nation, Filipino males live up to 66.11 years, and Filipino females, up to 71.64 years, according to the Philippine Statistical Authority.
In ARMM, Filipinos die five to 10 years younger, however. Life expectancy among males in the ARMM provinces is much, much shorter. In Maguindanao, life expectancy is at 60.3 years for males, and 61.65 for females; in Sulu, 56.97 and 58.53; in Tawi-Tawi, 56.13 and 57.5; in Lanao del Sur, 61.87 and 62.74; and in Basilan, 61.and 67.43.
As of the 2010 census, the National Statistics Office said ARMM’s 3.25-million population consists of 293,322 people in Basilan, 933,260 in Lanao del Sur,
944,718 in Maguindanao, 718,290 in Sulu, and 366,550 in Tawi-Tawi. – With research and reporting by fernando Cabigao Jr. and Jaileen F. Jimeno, PCIJ, March 2015
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