Gov wants anti-poverty projects

Poured in towns with most poor

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Nov 6 (PIA)— Now riding on the crest of the momentum which has pushed Bohol’s economy forward, Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado has pleaded to national government agencies with funds for anti-poverty projects to focus them on the 24 local government units saddled with high poverty incidence.

This as the Philippine Statistics Authority, during the National Statistics Month Data Dissemination Forum on Poverty Statistics last October 28, survey results showed that poverty incidence among families in Bohol in 2018 was 15.5 percent, translating to 47,360 poor Boholano families.

By 2021, reeling after the pandemic, poverty incidence soared to 61,450 families, with the poverty incidence climbing to 19.1 percent.

In 2023, from 19.1 percent in 2021, poverty incidence dropped to 14.8 percent, translating to 49,200 families.

As to poverty threshold in 2023, a Boholano family of five would need around P12,909 every month to meet their basic food and non-food needs.

In 2018, the provincial poverty threshold was P10,798 per month while this further increased to P11,189.

Families whose monthly incomes fall below, they are considered below the poverty threshold, according to PSA Supervising Statistical Analyst Emmanuel Galab, who presented the poverty incidence during the data dissemination.

On a full year poverty incidence among Boholano families, in 2018, 15.5 percent of Boholano families were considered poor.

By 2021, poverty incidence grew especially with the pandemic shutting off work and stalling operations of businesses and hitting the most of tourism services sector, it reached P19.1 percent among Boholanos.

In 2023, the provincial poverty incidence among families slid to 14.8 percent.

For the food threshold, in Bohol, a family would have to earn P9,015 every month to get their basic food needs met, or the minimum income required for them to meet their basic food needs, that is, food which satisfies the nutritional requirements for an economically necessary and socially desirable physical activities.

Those families would could not earn this much in 2023, would be considered food poor.

Among population, in 2023, there are 6 percent of Boholanos who are food poor, this figure translates to 83,760 who are living below subsistence levels.

This is about 4 percent of the Boholano families which is equivalent to 13,330 families.

Over this, Gov Aumentado, who sits as the chairman of the influential Regional Development Council, pulled to Bohol the council’s Social Development Sector including government agencies with project funds into poverty alleviation to level-off with the provincial government in its anti-poverty initiatives.

RDC co-chair and National Economic Development Authority 7 Regional Director Jennifer Bretaña hailed Bohol for bringing the DRC in its sectoral consultation with Boholanos, to identify possible areas of cooperation and development, while seeing the real situation down to the grassroots.

She added that the opportunity was the first time for the RDC Committee to get to the province for a top level discussion with mayors and stakeholders and attended by no less than regional heads of key government development agencies.

With the RDC as the highest policy-making body governing the administrative regions of the Philippines, allowing the regional heads of government agencies to directly interact with local chief executives allow the officials to see the real situation and to make sure that the funds from government can benefit the poor here directly. (RAHC/PIA-7/Bohol)

POVERTY ALLEVIATION. Governor Erico Aristotle Aumentado signs the declaration of commitment to fund the anti poverty initiatives which the national government agencies are also target focusing their projects and programs as the fastest way for the 24 towns with high poverty incidence to move out of the list. (PIABohol)

LEVERAGING. With poverty incidence in Bohol now thinned to 14 percent with the current anti-poverty initiativesaccording to Supervising Statistical Analyst Emmanuel Galab, Gov Aumentado wants the momentum sustained and instructed the NGAs anti poverty assistance be focused to the 24 towns with economies that need a jumpstarting so that local funds can be used with national funds for a much better anti-poverty traction. (PIABohol)