Poverty stalks Eastern Visayas

TACLOBAN CITY—Noreda Naputo can hardly make ends meet with the P200 her husband earns per day as a jeepney driver.

To support the needs of three children, Naputo, 50, had to work as a nanny to a niece.

Naputo, however, has no fixed wage as a nanny to a relative’s child. “I just accept what my sister-in-law gives to me,” said Naputo, a resident of Barangay 62-A, Sagkahan district.

Naputo needs to find a paying job because the monthly take home pay of her husband—P6,000 if he would not take a day off—is insufficient. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the poverty threshold, or the minimum income level for a family to meet its basic needs, in the region is P11,102 a month.

Poverty incidence in Eastern Visayas, already one of the country’s poorest regions, worsened after it was pummeled by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” that resulted in, among others, loss of jobs.

Wilma Perante, PSA regional head, said the P260 in daily minimum wage in the region is enough only to feed a family of three.

“If you are receiving the minimum wage and you are more than three in the family, that means you belong to the poor,” she said.

Perante said statistics should serve as “signals” for officials to plan programs to ease or end poverty.