MANILA, Philippines – Can you live on P21 per meal?
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), a family of five that earns below P9,581 a month is considered “food poor.” That comes out to around P63 per person per day, or P21 per meal.
This amount, also called the food threshold, is what the government considers as the minimum money that a person needs to meet their basic food requirements.
Earlier, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told the Senate that the poverty situation in the Philippines had improved in 2023, with more than 2.45 million Filipinos rising beyond the poverty line compared to 2021. Balisacan also said that 1.71 million more Filipinos were no longer considered food poor.
But senators, and ordinary citizens, believe that the metric used to measure poverty doesn’t reflect reality. (READ: PH poverty magnitude back to pre-pandemic level as family poverty rate falls to 10.9%)
“When you compute poverty threshold using an old number which is obviously not workable anymore — P20 per meal — hindi totoo ‘yung poverty forecast (the poverty forecast isn’t true),” Senator Grace Poe, who chairs the Senate committee on finance, said on Tuesday, August 13.
“Magandang tignan na bumaba ‘yung poverty incidence, but on the ground, baka hindi siya totoo kasi ‘yung numero hindi nagtutugma doon sa ano ba ‘yung kailangan ng ating mga kababayan para mabuhay ng mangaral, maayos, at mahusay,” Senator Nancy Binay added.
(It’s good to see that the poverty incidence has decreased, but on the ground, it might not be true because the numbers don’t match what our fellow citizens need to live decently, properly, and well.)
However, it might be better to see the food threshold as just a measurement. Describing it as as a “ruler,” Balisacan said the basket has remained the same for more than a decade, with only prices being adjusted for inflation. That provides the government with a way to see how poverty changes from year to year.
“Our interest insofar as monitoring is concerned is to answer the question: Are our policies, programs, strategies working insofar as reducing poverty is concerned? So for that, we established a baseline and ensured that baseline is constant,” Balisacan said on Tuesday.
“We want to find out whether the programs, the strategies, the policies are making a dent on poverty, whatever that standard that we set up from the very beginning,” the country’s chief socioeconomic planner explained the next day after again being grilled in the Senate over the same issue.
How do you compute the food threshold?
The food bundle used in computing the threshold is designed by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, or FNRI. It’s supposed to be made up of the cheapest food in an area that’s able to meet 100% of the energy and protein that the average person needs along with 80% of other nutrients.
That means the basket can vary regionally. In some areas, the cheapest food may be rice and boiled fish. In others, it may be corn and boiled pork.
For example, in the National Capital Region (NCR), the food bundle used has scrambled egg, rice, and coffee with milk for breakfast. Lunch consists of boiled monggo with dilis and malunggay, rice, and banana. Dinner is fried tulingan, rice, and boiled kangkong. The food bundle also includes a merienda of pandesal.
It’s also important to note that the P21 per meal is a national average, meaning it also includes cheaper food prices in certain provinces. The food threshold for a family of five living in NCR is slightly higher at P10,972, or P24 per meal.
National Statistician Dennis Mapa clarified that the amount per meal is so low precisely because it’s the bare minimum that a person needs. The amount includes the least cost for the ingredients and the gas used in cooking.
“You can’t buy food at the karinderya (eatery),” Mapa said. “It is most likely insufficient because it’s minimum basic needs but that is how the threshold is computed.”
So what happens if you bump up the seemingly unrealistic poverty threshold, which includes non-food expenses too, by around 30% more? The new poverty threshold becomes P18,035 per month for a family of five.
That comes out to 34 million Filipinos or 22.8% of families now being considered poor, significantly more than the 10.9% measured using the original poverty threshold.
However, NEDA Secretary Balisacan said that regardless of whether you use the poverty threshold or a higher benchmark, the fact remains that more and more Filipinos are escaping poverty.
“Our analysis as far as 2021 and 2023 [are] concerned, the conclusion is the same that poverty indeed decreased regardless of whatever reasonable poverty lines you employ,” he said on Tuesday.
The PSA is set to revisit its methodology or “menu” used in computing for 2025’s food and poverty threshold to reflect changes in consumer buying behavior. – Rappler.com