Pangasinan wins big in fight vs poverty, says NSO report

MANILA, Philippines - While the whole country posted a minimal 1.1 percent decline in poverty rate from last year, the picture was rosier in Pangasinan, which attained a 9.5 percent growth in its campaign to improve the people’s quality of life.

The overall picture, as reported by the National Statistical Coordination Board based on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the National Statistics Office (NSO) in July last year, showed that the country’s poverty incidence rate went down from 23.4 percent in 2006 to 22.3 percent in 2012.

The survey indicated though that Pangasinan registered a sharp drop of 9.5 percent from 26.5 to 17 percent for the same comparative years.

Provincial planning and development coordinator Benita Pizarro said in 2006, Pangasinan was the poorer province in Region 1 as its poverty rate was even higher than the national figure.

“Though we now rank second to Ilocos Norte with the least poverty incidence rate in Region 1, Pangasinan has the more significant decline of poverty incidence than Ilocos Norte by 4.2 percent,” she said.

Pangasinan also chalked up the most significant decrease of poverty incidence rate from among the four provinces in Region I.

Since Gov. Amado Espino Jr. assumed office in 2007, the provincial government has launched several anti-poverty initiatives, notably in the areas of healthcare, agricultural productivity, livelihood assistance, and employment.