BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera performed better than the national average in almost all poverty indicators based on the results of the 2021 full year official poverty statistics.
NEDA-CAR assistant regional director Stephanie Christiansen disclosed that the Cordillera is among the 4 regions having the lowest poverty incidence among families while the other regions were the National Capital Region (NCR), Region III or Central Luzon and Region IV-A or the CALABARZON.
In the provincial level, most Cordillera provinces exhibited improvements in terms of poverty incidence and subsistence.
Further, the Cordillera also demonstrated an improving performance as shown in the decreasing trend in poverty incidence from 2018 to 2021 where the same dropped to 6.9 percent from the previous 8.6 percent.
Christiansen pointed out that accelerators on poverty reduction include a strong regional economy, a steady employment rate, a single digit inflation, stable income, and the stimulus package.
On the strong regional economy, she revealed that the region’s economy improved by 7.5 percent in 2021 from the 10.2 percent contraction in 2020 where the growth rate in the gross regional domestic product (GRDP) exceeded the 5.5 to 6.5 percent target growth rate of the region last year, even surpassing the 7 percent target for 2022.
Among the major sectors of the economy, the gross value added of the industry and services sector exhibited growth in 2021 where the said sector made the fastest rebound with a growth rate of 16.3 percent with notable recovery in construction, manufacturing, and mining and quarrying.
Moreover, the services sector also grew at 5.9 percent with remarkable growth in accommodation and food services and health and social work activities where the aforesaid sectors were the ones that generally created jobs that provided income and somehow graduated families beyond the poverty line. Specifically, on manufacturing, the NEDA-CAR official stipulated that the exports of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) rebounded by 11 percent in 2021 which is equivalent to $.108 billion, recovering from a 20 percent drop in 2020 or total sales of $977.5 million.
On the steady employment rate, she said that owing to the improved economy, more jobs were created and generated where businesses slowly opened with limited capacity, the regional employment situation in the region started to rebound from the effects of the pandemic since 2020.
She explained that the employment rate of 94.2 percent in the region for 2021 is close to the pre-pandemic level of 96.5 percent in 2019 which is an improvement from the 89.6 percent employment rate in 2020 when most of the businesses closed due to the implementation of strict lockdowns.
According to her, the region was able to sustain a good number of jobs that kept individuals and families above the poverty threshold.
However, PEZA recorded a slight decrease in its employment from 13,710 to 13,498 in 2021 while in the 5 economic zones in the city, the number of registered employed workers decreased by 1.51 percent during the same period, creating a small dent in employment.
Christiansen emphasized that economic zones, as growth centers, serve as a pull driver for employment and migration where rural job seekers tend to look for jobs in urban areas where jobs are available.
On the other hand, she stated that inflation rate increased by 2 percent last year, as supply chains continue to be disrupted due to the pandemic where the average regional inflation jumped from 2.5 percent in 2020 to 4.5 percent in 2021 which could be attributed to further restrictions that remained in effect, hampering the movement of goods and inputs to production.
On the region’s stable income, the family income and expenditure survey 2021 showed that Cordillera families largely depend on salary and wages that provided the regular income of families during the pandemic. Changes in poverty are typically attributed to the rise and fall in income or changes in income distribution. Except for Abra, Baguio City and all provinces have exhibited a generally improved trend from 2018 to 2021.
On stimulus package to help the poor, based on budget allocation, Christiansen asserted that government expenditures increased by 6.28 percent in 2021 with the largest chunk disbursed for the social amelioration program (SAP) which was targeted for the poor and could have directly impacted to the welfare of poor individuals and families thereby alleviating poverty. Other government assistance included livelihood and transport subsidies, among others to help families and displaced workers cope with the effects of the pandemic.