This article seeks to clarify some of the points and misconceptions reported in the article of the 27 May 2010 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, entitled “No reduction in RP’s poverty rate – NSCB (http://business.inquirer.net/money/breakingnews/view/
20100527-272374/No-reduction-in-RPs-poverty-rate-NSCB) concerning the 2009 poverty statistics.

Excerpts from the second and sixth paragraph:

“NSCB Secretary General Romulo Virola said preliminary indicators from the two rounds of survey conducted by the agency in 2009 showed there was no reduction in the country’s poverty rate in 2009 from that in 2006, when poverty rate stood at 33 percent of the country’s population.”

“Virola said the NSCB conducted two rounds of survey on income levels in 2009 – in early third quarter and in the fourth quarter following the visit of tropical storm “Ondoy” and typhoon “Pepeng.” The first round indicated slight improvement from the 2006 poverty incidence, he said, but the second round had discouraging results.”

NSCB Clarification:

On the agency conducting the survey

• Per Executive Order No. 352, Series of 1996, - Designation of Statistical Activities that will Generate Critical Data for Decision Making of the Government and the Private Sector or the System of Designated Statistics (SDS), the National Statistics Office (NSO) is officially designated to collect income and expenditure data through the triennial conduct of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). The two survey rounds of the 2009 FIES were conducted by NSO in July of the reference year and in January of the succeeding year, respectively.

• The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), on the other hand, is mandated to generate official poverty statistics of the country, using the results of the FIES.

On the poverty trends between 2006 and 2009

• Based on the SDS, the schedule of the results of the FIES is 18 months after the reference year. Per coordination with the Income and Employment Statistics Division of the NSO, processing of the 2009 FIES is ongoing and the target release of the preliminary results will be in October 2010. (Note: The preliminary results of the 2006 FIES were released in October 2007 and the final results in January 2008 (i.e., nine and 12 months after the conduct of the second survey round of the FIES, respectively.)

• Likewise, as indicated in the SDS, official poverty statistics to be generated by the NSCB are released within two months after the provision of the FIES public use file (PUF) by the NSO.

• To date, 2009 updates of official poverty statistics are not yet available, awaiting results of the 2009 FIES.

 

Excerpt from the third paragraph:

“The country’s population stood at about 89 million in 2006. In 2009, the population was estimated at 92 million.”

NSCB Clarification:

• As estimated by the NSO, the projected Philippine population in 2006 and 2009 were 87 million and 92 million, respectively, based on the 2000 Census of Population and Housing.

The NSCB would like to thank Ms. Michelle Remo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for her interest in our statistics and for her contribution in the dissemination of official statistics.

For related materials, tables and technical notes on poverty statistics as well as technical papers and articles on official statistics are posted in the poverty page of the NSCB website (http://www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty/default.asp).

For further inquiries, please contact Ms. Bernadette B. Balamban of the NSCB Social Sectors B Division at telephone numbered (632) 896-7981 or through e-mail address bb.balamban@nscb.gov.ph.

Posted: 07 June 2010.