CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – This city remains as having the lowest poverty incidence among all areas in Northern Mindanao, the Philippine Statistics Authority in Region 10 (PSA-10) said Thursday.
In a media forum, PSA-10 officer-in-charge Janith Aves said the city only recorded 17.4 percent of poverty incidence based on the first semester of 2021 official poverty statistics.
However, this is 2.3 percent higher compared to the 15.1 percent poverty incidence in the city in 2018 in the same semester.
Despite the low poverty incidence rate, Aves said there are still deprived areas in the city.
“If we say 17.4 [percent] is lower, that doesn’t mean that they are all not poor. This means that we still have a poor population here in areas that we have mentioned listed in the poverty incidence," she explained.
Meanwhile, PSA-10 data showed that the provinces of Misamis Occidental and Camiguin have the highest decrease in poverty incidence.
Misamis Occidental has 30.8 percent of poverty incidence, which is 10.9 percent lower compared to the 41.7 percent poverty incidence in 2018.
Meanwhile, Camiguin has 24.5 percent poverty incidence in 2021, or 5.6 percent lower compared to the 2018 figure.
On the other hand, the province of Lanao del Norte has the highest poverty incidence in the region at 48.6 percent. It is 16 percent higher compared to the 32.6 percent in 2018 -- the second-highest poverty incidence after Bukidnon.
Wilma Guillen, the PSA central office assistant statistician, said the full 2021 poverty statistics can be expected around September this year.
Moreover, National Economic Development Authority–Region 10 Director Mylah Faye Cariño stressed the importance of identifying areas that have higher poverty levels for purposes of program effectiveness and development strategy in a rapidly changing economic environment.
Aside from the PSA provincial-level data, Cariño urged local government units to use other sources of data such as the National Household Targeting Sections (NHTS) and the 2018 Small Area Estimates of other concerned government offices to measure poverty incidence.
She said the Department of Social Welfare and Development–Region 10 will also release its latest NHTS data within the year that will cover the barangay level.
“That would give us an idea of the barangays [with high poverty incidence]. If we look at the municipalities, not all municipalities are poor. The barangay level data is truly important,” Cariño said. (PNA)
