Liza Maza doubts decline in poverty incidence

National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Secretary Liza Maza said she doubted whether the poverty incidence fell during the time of the Aquino administration as reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

She said the decline was “probably artificial” and was brought about by massive public spending in the second half of 2015, ahead of the elections campaign.

The PSA on Thursday reported that poverty incidence went down to 21.6 per cent in 2015 from 25.2 per cent in 2012.

This translates to 21.93 million Filipinos who could not afford to buy basic food and nonfood items.

“It is possible that the decline was largely due to a massive influx of cash to the poor through the conditional cash transfer program, bottom-up budgeting projects, a hiring spree of street sweepers and similar temporary jobs and general election-related spending in an all-out effort by the past administration to elect Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas,” Maza said.

“This means that the decline is probably artificial and does not reflect any real change in the situation of the poor,” she continued.

To cast doubt on the figure, the new NAPC head also recalled that the National Economic Development Authority had forecast that the full-year poverty incidence level for 2015 would be between 23.6 per cent and 23.8 per cent.

Maza  noted the “unprecedented” gap between the first semester figure of 26.3 per cent and the full-year poverty incidence figure of 21.6 per cent in 2015. She said while full-year poverty incidence numbers are generally lower than first semester estimates due to higher incomes during the second semester,  it had never reached a difference of 4.7 per cent points as what happened in 2015.

This indicates the PSA figure may have been influenced by “unforeseen and unsustainable circumstances,” Maza said.

She further pointed out that poverty incidence is not a comprehensive measure since it only captures income poverty.