Number of poor families grew in Western Visayas

Although the percentage of families living in poverty has dropped slightly in Western Visayas, the region has the most number of families living below poverty line.

Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Raul Banias said a 2008 report of the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) showed that the region accounted for 9.1 percent of the country's poor families although poverty incidence dropped by 0.3 percentage point, from 31.4 percent in 2006 to 31.1 percent.

The NSCB report disclosed that the number of poor families in Western Visayas rose by 7.2 percent, from 397,073 families in 2006 to 425,571 in 2008, said Banias in an executive briefing at the Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol in Bacolod City.

Banias also said that Negros Occidental had the highest number of poor families in the region at 115,000.

Negros Occidental Governor Isidro Zayco said the 2006 figures did not reflect the present situation in the province.

Zayco said the provincial government has been addressing the poverty problem, and recent figures showed a slight improvement in the percentage of families rising from poverty.

He also added that Negros Occidental had a larger population than the other provinces in Western Visayas, hence the larger poverty figures.

But Banias maintained the need to discuss the NSCB statistics so the local governments could review their programs on poverty alleviation.

Among the provinces of Western Visayas, the poverty incidence in Aklan worsened to 42.6 percent in 2008, up by 9.2 percentage points from its 2006 level of 33.5 percent. Iloilo and Antique, on the other hand, managed to improve in 2008, the NSCB report said.

Iloilo reduced its poverty incidence by 6.9 percentage points, from its 31.1 percent level in 2006 to 24.1 percent in 2008.

Western Visayas is one among only four regions that successfully reduced its poverty incidence in 2008, the NSCB report showed.

According to the NSCB, a family of five would need at least P6,002 a month in order to be considered as "not poor."

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