TUCP: Survey says 4 M new poor workers in Philippines

MANILA, Philippines - Labor group Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP) on Monday bared that there are four million new poor workers nationwide.

Quoting a recent poll released by the Philippine Statistics Authority, TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said these new poor workers cannot afford the P293 projected daily cost of food and basic commodities of a Filipino family of five to survive.

With this, the labor group urged the government to take immediate solutions to address growing poverty and unemployment in the country.

Results of 2014 survey released last March 6 showed that poverty incidence among Filipino families worsened to 20 percent in the first half of 2014 from 18.8 percent in 2013 while the subsistence incidence rose from 7.5 percent in 2013 to 7.6 percent this year.

The result also showed incomes of poor families were short by 27 percent of the average poverty threshold of P8,778 per month or P293 daily for a family of five in the first semester of 2014. This means, on the average, an additional P2,370 was needed by a poor worker and his family with five members to move out of poverty.

"With only 400 days left in office, President Noynoy Aquino must re-focus and re-devote his remaining time, energy, and political capital if he still wants to make a direct impact on Filipino workers and their families," Tanjusay said.

In the National Capital Region alone, the highest minimum wage in all 17 regions, the government said the real value of the current P466 minimum daily wage is P356.64 or P7,846.08 a month or P932 short of the poverty threshold.

The same survey showed that 10.5 percent of the working population whose income cannot afford even the food threshold alone.

The poorest is in Yolanda-hit Eastern Visayas region with 2.2 million families who cannot afford the minimum daily cost of P293. The current real value of the P280 daily minimum wage is P184.

The National Economic Development Authority cited the rapid rise in food prices and the lingering effects of typhoon Yolanda as key reasons poverty worsened. Rice prices alone increased to 11.9 percent in the first semester of 2014 to 1.7 percent in the same period of 2013.