Despite the remarkable economic performance of the Philippines in recent years, poverty remains a core policy issue. And with a relatively young population, the poverty situation concerns largely children who are at the critical stages of their physical, mental, and social development. This...

Poverty incidence among population rose from 24.9 percent in 2003 to 26.4 percent in 2006 and then inched up further to 26.5 percent in 2009. Although this aggregate poverty rate shows only a few percentage points change from 2003 to 2009, this does not mean there are no movements in and out of...

Poverty incidence has been declining in the Philippines over the past 10 years. However, with the advent of the Asian crisis in 1997, there was a reversal in poverty trends. Estimates indicate that the headcount index has gone up to 40 percent in 1998 from 31.8 percent in 1997. Other...