Govt should broaden poverty bases in stat surveys

BULUAN, Maguindanao — Government statistics from official poverty surveys are largely based on average monthly family income and costs of expenditures to meet food and non-food requirements, officials said.Maguindanao Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said poverty incidence might have been differently told of the province, if the people’s access to free education and healthcare, potable water and other social services were integrated and factored-in in poverty surveys.Maguindanao has had better statistics in the think-tank group Ibon Foundation’s poverty surveys, which considered those factors as access to free education, healthcare and potable water and other social services.At the sidelight of this Wednesday’s Provincial Peace and Order Council (PPOC) meeting, Mangudadatu said many student-beneficiaries of the Maguindanao Program for Educational Assistance and Community Empowerment (PEACE) Program have earned tertiary degrees in different fields of profession — thus, effectively reducing the incidence of college dropout in the province.The national government's free college education program also started this school year in many of the country's 81 provinces.Dr. Tahir Sulaik, head of the Integrated Provincial health Office, said the IPHO-Maguindanao is equipped with modern medical facilities like CT-Scan and Hemodialysis machines, and has eight upgraded hospitals under its operational supervision.Sulaik said residents did not need to go to Davao City to avail of quality medical services and tests, and all for free or charge.Emma Ali, head of the Provincial Social Welfare Development Office (PSWDO), said only 170,000 have been validated out of the total 290,000 individuals listed beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pampamiliang Pilipino Program (4Ps) at ARMM municipal and barangay levels.Ali said of the 90,000 students listed in the PSWDO records as enrolled students, only more than 60,000 were validated when lists were cross-checked with the Department of Education of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DepEd).In the listing of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD)-ARMM of poor families for the CCT program, access to employment, education and potable water were also factored-in.Ali said Manila-based evaluating teams would consider more than 30,000 missing school children as those in the category of without access to education—and constitute an added figure to local poverty statistics by CCT standards.She said most of the children who left schooling are living in conflict-affected areas in the so-called SPMS (Saudi-Pagatin-Mamasapano-Sharif Aguak) Box, an occasional subject of intense military operations against extremist dissidents..Maguindanao officials noted that other Mindanao provinces unthinkably landed on top 15 of the country’s poorest provinces, probably for similar reason.The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) utilized the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) determinants in its 2018 survey, as it was in 2015 and the past censuses conducted by its forerunner National Statistics Office (NSO).Ali was optimistic as to say that things would turn out right when more data were in place for the national identification (ID) system.Survey questionnaire mainly include family income and the expenditures charged to such income. It is not clear if the cost of expenditure for non-foods family requirements include access to free quality healthcare, potable water and free education.(1) Lanao del Sur (ARMM) - 74.3 percent (2) Sulu (ARMM) - 65.7 percent (3) Sarangani (Region 12) - 61.7 percent (4) Northern Samar (Region 8) - 61.6 percent (5) Maguindanao (ARMM) - 59.4 percent (6) Bukidnon (Region 10) - 58.7 percent (7) Sultan Kudarat (Region 12) - 56.2 percent (8) Zamboanga del Norte (Region 9) - 56.1 percent (9) Siquijor (Region 7) - 55.2 percent (10) Agusan del Sur (Caraga) - 54.8 percent(11) Eastern Samar (Region 8) - 50.0 percent (12) Lanao del Norte (Region 10) - 50.0 percent (13) Mt. Province (CAR) - 49.9 percent (14) Western Samar (Region 8) - 49.5 percent (15) North Cotabato (Region 12) - 48.9 percent (16) Catanduanes (Region 5) - 47.8 percent (17) Leyte (Region 8) - 46.7 percent (18) Negros Oriental (Region 7) - 46.6 percent (19) Zamboanga Sibugay (Region 9) - 44.9 percent (20) Sorsogon (Region 5) - 44.8 percentBut PSA have separate tabulations for access to healthcare services, education and other basic services.Still the PSA statistics were low in those aspectsand The school population increased to 1,008,010 (2010-2015) from 813,855 (2005-2010) for five year old and above. Survival rate at elementary level is still low, although increased in 2015 to 499,119 from 386,689 in 2010 High School survival rate also increased to 240,054 in 2015 from 185,716 in 2010.Of these numbers, only 21,936 ended up earning college degrees in 2015, an increase of roughly 37.18 percent from 13,782 in 2010, according to PSA. Nash B. Maulana