Northern Samar, Sulu, Masbate "Poorest" Provinces in the Philippines
THE PEACE and Equity Foundation recently unveiled its Poverty Map, the first in the country, which showed that Northern Samar, Sulu and Masbate had the "most pronounced conditions of poverty" among the provinces in the Philippines.
PEF based its ranking on various poverty indicators including the lack of housing, lack of access to clean water, sanitation facilities, incidence of malnutrition and income levels provided by government data.
Following Northern Samar, Sulu and Masbate on the PEF Development Index were Basilan, Western Samar, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Norte and Oriental Negros.
PEF executive director Veronica Villavicencio said during today's Good News Kapihan that PEF was particularly concerned about Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi because poverty levels here deteriorate further due to peace and order concerns.
Villavicencio said that with peace in these islands, economic growth should follow considering that there is great potential for the development here of a world-class seaweeds industry.
The PEF was optimistic that with greater use of the Poverty Map, government and non-government organizations can immediately see the concerns faced by particular provinces.
The map, for instance, shows at a glance the provinces with the highest poverty incidence among families, or those with the worst state of nutrition of children under five years.
In terms of poverty incidence, Zamboanga Del Norte tops the list with 64.6 percent of families living below the poverty level according tothe 2003 government figures.
Following Zamboanga del Norte are Maguindanao (60.4 percent), Masbate (55.9 percent), Surigao del Norte (54.5 percent) and Agusan del Sur (52.8 percent).
In the area of malnutrition, Camarines Sur was worst off with 13.8 percent underweight children under 5 years. In the same dire strats are Catanduanes, Northern, Western and Eastern Samar provinces, and Biliran and Abra.
"We want the poverty map to be a platform for partnership, especially with local governments, so we can agree on what needs to be done in particular provinces," Villavicencio said.