FEB 10, 2016

NR # 4106

The Philippines is still poor

While the economic situation of the country has dramatically improved, the Philippines remains
in the list of the poorest countries in the world, said Rep. Rufus B. Rodriguez (2 nd District, Cagayan de
Oro City).
Citing the latest report of the United Nations Human Development Report, Rodriguez said the
Philippines is ranked 117th position in the list of the worlds 187 poor countries.
Rodriguez said the Philippines is rated among Egypt, Paraguay, Gabon, Bolivia, El Salvador,
Uzbekistan, South Africa, Syria, and Iraq, which are in 100 to 120 levels.
The Philippines belongs to the medium human development bracket unlike the neighboring
Malaysia and Thailand, which at 62nd place and 89th place, respectively, are in high human development
bracket, Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the report also cited the Philippines as one of the countries where the connection
between social exclusion and conflict can be illustrated.
It means that these are places where a significant part of the population become vulnerable due
to conflict situations such as insurgencies, rebellions or separatist movements, Rodriguez said.
The report, which highlights the needs in promoting the peoples choices and protecting human
development achievement, takes the view that vulnerability threatens human development. Unless it is
systematically addressed by changing policies and social norms, progress will be neither equitable nor
sustainable, Rodriguez.
The report said an indicator of slow progress in the Philippines is that the country was ranked
below all but Indonesia among the five founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The report observed that when countries with similar starting points take different development
paths, national forces, policies, institutions, social context and idiosyncratic shocks affect the outcome.
The Philippines did not have a similar starting point with other ASEAN members, but started out
at the top when the regional bloc was founded in 1967 by the country together with Indonesia, Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand.
However, in the 2013 Human Development Index or HDI, Singapore ranked 18th, at par with
Austria; Malaysia placed 64th alongside Libya and Serbia; and Thailand was at 103rd. Only Indonesia
was behind the Philippines, though not too far at 121st. Oil-rich Brunei, which joined ASEAN in 1984,
placed 30th. Vietnam, which joined in 1995, is also closing in on the Philippines at 127th.
The HDI is based on factors that include per capita income, public health indicators, life
expectancy, gender inequality and public spending on education. The report noted that in 2011-2012,
approximately 18.4 percent of Filipinos lived on less than $1.25 a day, with 5.7 percent of the population
living in severe impoverishment and 9.1 percent vulnerable to poverty. (30) maprs