RP poverty levels improve, Muslims make progress
Extreme poverty levels in the Philippines have
declined slightly to about 30 percent of the population, with minority Muslims improving their lot significantly, the government said Wednesday.
"In terms of population,
30 out of 100 Filipinos in 2003 had income short of the minimum cost of satisfying the basic requirements,
an improvement from 2000 [when] 33 out of 100 Filipinos [were] ... below the poverty threshold," the National Statistical Coordination Board said.
That improvement took 1.6 million Filipinos out of poverty.
The government agency puts the per capita poverty threshold at
P35.93 (68 US cents) a day in income, enough to buy about 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of rice, the staple cereal.
The World Bank estimates that 40 percent of Filipinos live on two dollars a day or less.
Three predominantly Muslim provinces in the south --
Sulu,
Lanao del Sur and
Tawi-Tawi -- hauled themselves off the 2000 list of the 10 poorest, with double-digit declines in the incidence of poverty, the government agency said in a statement.
These areas, which form part of a Muslim self-rule area called the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have benefited from large-scale government and international aid since the signing of a peace treaty between Manila and separatist rebels in 1996.
The government is observing a three year-old cease-fire with another Muslim separatist group in the area and hopes to sign a wider political settlement later this year.
However, the government survey also found that
six other provinces in the south, many of them with substantial Muslim populations, are now among the 10 poorest provinces in the mainly Roman Catholic Philippines. AFP
News from ABS-CBNnews.com
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/topoftheh...?StoryId=41010
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For me, I can't see any improvement... but I am still optimistic about it...
Hardwork lang dyud...