Post on 23-Jan-2023
The Assessment of Existing Government Interventions in
Alleviating Urban Poverty
A Policy Paper by
Jess Christian D. Ramirez
Political Science 14
Prof. Alicor L. Panao, PhD.
May 2014
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Poverty is defined as an individual’s lack of resources or
opportunities necessary to sustain just, sufficient, and suitable
living conditions. In economics, several tools are utilized in
order to measure poverty. One is through poverty incidence, a
mechanism wherein the income of the general population is
censured and classified as poor or not based on a standard called
the poverty threshold (Institute for Research in Poverty 2012).
Urban Poverty on the other hand is defined as the kind of poverty
that can be found in the urban areas of a country or state.
Division of the poor as to being part of the urban poor or rural
poor is deemed necessary because the knowledge of the
demographics of the poor will assist lawmakers and administrators
of programs to alleviate poverty in tailor fitting programs that
will be applicable for each type.
In the Philippines, poverty is addressed though a form of
conditional cash transfer (CCT) called the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino
Program (4Ps). Its concept was based on the Bolsa Familia in Brazil,
Familias en Accion in Colombia and OPORTUNIDADES in Mexico. Its
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structure is claimed to be both a welfare program and a method of
breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty (DSWD 2014).
Its constitutionality was based from Article 2, Section 9 of the
Constitution which provides that:
“The State shall promote a just and dynamic
social order that will ensure the prosperity and
independence of the nation and free the people from
poverty through policies that provide adequate social
services, promote full employment, a rising standard of
living, and an improved quality of life for all.”
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Having a basic mechanism similar to any conditional cash transfer
program, beneficiaries of the 4Ps will be given cash in exchange
of certain requirements, in this case, to ensure the health of
pregnant women and the education of children until certain age of
maturity.
The Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) is the lead
executing agency of this program. On the other hand, the National
Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) is responsible for
conducting surveys through Small Area Estimate – a statistical tool
for estimating poverty incidence by combining survey and census
data of cities and municipalities. The benefits that will be
received by the 4Ps beneficiaries are as follows: health grant of
P500/month (or P6000/year), P300 per children enrolled (in either
preschool, elementary or high school) or P3600/year per children,
with a maximum of 3 children per household (Defensor-Santiago,
2010).
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Households that are classified as Extremely Poor, those that have
an individual earning of P 27.20 per day or P830.00 per month,
will be prioritized in the program. Poor households, on the other
hand, will be prioritized right after the Extremely Poor
households. Poor households are those that are able to provide
for their nutritional needs but are not able to provide their
other basic needs, such as clothing, shelter, and health. Based
on the NSCB data, a family that is poor earns P41.40 per day or
P1242 per month (Defensor-Santiago 2010).
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All beneficiaries of the 4Ps must comply with the conditions set
by the DSWD. Children 3-5 years of age must enroll in a daycare
program or preschool and children 6-14 years of age must enroll
in school. Both age groups must attain 85% attendance of the
required school days. Children 0-5 years of age must complete all
vaccines provided by the Department of Health (DOH) through their
respective municipal or barangay health centers. Pregnant women
must also ensure the local government officials or health workers
that they have completed their pre-natal checkups which are done
monthly or as frequent as they were required by the doctor.
Lastly, parents and guardians must attend Parenting Workshops and
Seminars conducted by the DSWD. Failure to comply with these
conditions may lead to suspension or revocation of the benefits
from the 4Ps as addressed by the Grievance Redress System
(Defensor-Santiago 2010).
On the other hand, the crafting of the Presidential Commission
for the Urban Poor (PCUP) has roots that can be traced from
Kongreso ng Pagkakaisa ng Maralitang Lungsod (KPML) which was a
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product of the dialogue with then President Corazon Aquino in
1986, set into landmark by means of Executive Order 82. Its main
function is to organize, support and lead the Urban Poor. Its
organization is headed by the PCUP Chairman/CEO then followed by
five PCUP Commissioners. Area Coordinators will also be assigned
throughout the designated areas order to ensure proper
implementation of PCUP’s programs and services (PCUP 2013).
PCUP’s programs and services can be summarized into three basic
types. First is Urban Poor Organization (UPO) Accreditation which
can either be occupation-based or community-based. This is due to
the fact that the PCUP serves as the official link of the urban
poor to the
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government and NGOs which can open to opportunities such as
partnerships and community development programs. Second, is
increasing the urban poor’s access to land and housing. And
third, in coordinating, monitoring, evaluating and promoting the
rights of the urban poor especially on shelter-related cases
(PCUP 2013).
The analysis of the effectiveness of the two existing measures
can be summed up into five arguments that would be presented in
this policy paper. These five arguments would serve as the core
of the paper and will address the strengths and weaknesses of the
existing government programs in targeting the problem of urban
poverty and poverty in the general context. The arguments also
aims to lay the frameworks for possible solutions that may either
be derived from existing methods or a completely new concept
addressing the flaws of current solutions being implemented. In
line with these, the threats and opportunities that would be
encountered while laying the proposed solutions will also be
discussed in order to further elaborate on the issues at hand.
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The first argument revolves around the issue regarding the scope
of urban poverty – it is not merely confined to the boundaries of
the metropolitan areas, but is linked to poverty incidence in
rural areas as well (PCUP Poverty Statistics 2013) [1]. It can be
reflected all throughout this material that the analysis of urban
poverty is not separated from the analysis of poverty in general
mainly because of the tendency of people in the rural areas who
experience poverty to
migrate to urban regions. This contributes to the bubble of
poverty incidence in the urban setting. The table given by the
PCUP shows two crucial points, one is that the people who are
considered “poor” and “extremely poor” based on the national
poverty incidence resides mostly along the rural areas, and the
other is that migrants to the Metros are amongst those who came
from these poorest rural areas. Therefore, in order to
efficiently provide a solution to urban poverty, administrators
and implementers of programs should not isolate the problem
within the confines of the metros but rather, they should1 See Table 1 of Figures and Tables
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consider the trend of poverty and migration on the outskirts of
the urban areas, more importantly in the poorest of the poor
rural areas. Failure to address the poverty incidence in these
rural areas, in effect, contributes to the endless cycle of
failure in addressing the poverty incidence in the urban region.
Second, in support of the aforementioned point, it is argued that
the centralization of key projects in Metro Manila (NCR) and
other key cities entices migration of people from the provinces
(Dumaraog et al 2012) resulting to an unbalanced number of
migrants and job opportunities, wherein migrants exceed the
number of jobs available, resulting to an increase in
unemployment in these cities (Maquito 2012). In Metro Manila
alone, people from Region V ranked first in internal migration,
has moved from the rural areas to the NCR (Dumaraog et al 2012).
The migrant bubble reflected by this figure can be equated to the
bubble of urban poverty. In the recently conducted job fair (ABS-
CBN News 2014) for Metro Manila, only 116,000 job vacancies were
offered, a figure which is less than half the number of
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unemployed in Metro Manila alone (Ambanta 2013). Aside from the
depleting opportunities for migrants to get work, this scenario
can be worsened by the job mismatch (Waga 2014) wherein there is
a disparity
between the requirements set by employers and the skills set and
educational attainment of migrant applicants, leading to a
condition called “underemployment”.
Setting a cap on government spending and allocation of funds,
such as Internal Revenue Allotment, for first class cities and
municipalities will decentralize key projects in these
progressing areas; at the same time, providing greater allotment
for lower level municipalities in the rural areas. Given the
existing structure for the allocation of the IRA, fund
distribution is determined only through land area and population
(DBM Reports 2013). Capping on the IRA allotment of key cities
will give opportunities to low level municipalities to develop
more programs for its development through the raise in allocation
that will be given (Quitasol 2013). On the other hand, political
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watchdog groups and agencies that ensure proper spending of
government funds should be strengthened in order to police
possible acts of corruption through the said raise.
The next argument that should be taken into account is that the
commissioning of the PCUP establishes a wide span of control
among government agencies that employ measures to lessen the
incidence of poverty. It is clear that whenever urban poverty is
raised, PCUP is not the first agency that comes to mind but
rather the more renowned cabinet positions such as the National
Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the Department of Social
Welfare (DSWD) or the National Census and Statistical
Coordination (NSCB) for statistical figures and values. Thus,
commissioning the PCUP created another arm to take care of the
Urban Poor.
The welfare and interaction mechanism employed by the PCUP is
through Community Development of the urban poor through
accreditation of Urban Poverty Organizations (UPO) and then
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establishing links for the UPOs to NGOs and local and national
government, interfering with the functions of the DSWD as the
chief department assigned for development and community building
(DSWD 2010). The PCUP, as the chief liaison of the urban poor to
the local and national government, is also tasked to the draft
proposals and projects that will benefit the UPOs in general,
which requires them to conduct tedious research and census
amongst the urban poor community. These actions might interfere
with the tasks of the NEDA and NSCB which reside upon economic
analysis (Ang Misyong NEDA 2010) and censure (The Philippine
Statistical Act 2013). These cited overlapping of the tasks of
the PCUP with the DSWD, NEDA and NSCB can be a cause of
misinformation among the general public especially when it comes
to annual reports of poverty incident or poverty threshold, for
example.
A good case in point to consider is the contradictory values
given by the NEDA and NSCB as cited in one of the interviews to
the recent NEDA chief that came a few months after the NSCB has
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prepared its Filipino Nutritional Cookbook which entails daily
meals that ranges from P50-P100 for the breakfast, lunch and
dinner. According to him, it takes P1000/day per family for them
to live decently, a figure ten times larger than the one provided
by the NSCB. Finally, when it comes to the issue of urban poor,
the commissioning of another arm might lead to pointing fingers
as to whether which arm or department has the responsibility of
taking care of the urban poor sector. Drawing clear lines between
the organizational charts of the three agencies will eliminate
overlapping of functions between the three agencies and thus
allowing them to focus on whichever task should be done by their
respected arm.
Also, despite the proposed statistical measure by the DSWD in
locating the “poorest of the poor,” the identification of CCT
beneficiaries can lead to a lot of conflict. There is no
mechanism for checks and balances for the selection process done
by the DSWD. As the executive implementing agency of the program,
all the work and power allocated in the selection of the
beneficiaries is vested upon the DSWD. No appeals, inquiries and
other similar can be address to a different department or
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committee and thus collusion amongst official and employees of
the DSWD may result to an incompetent selection resulting to
ghost, incompetent and unqualified beneficiaries. The creation of
an inquiry body that is outside the DSWD might be able to provide
checks for whatever decision done by the DSWD regarding the
awarding of the benefits of the program, at the same time, the
clause that allows local executives to be in aid of the DSWD
personnel in seeking for the beneficiaries may lead to
politicking – a concretization of which would be the boom of
registration of the 4Ps happening around 2011 and 2012 (Ordinario
2012), which is very close to the local elections done last 2013.
A probable amendment to this is to limit or to close the
registration upon a certain period before and after election.
This is effect will dissolve the patronage system, wherein the
entitlement of becoming a 4Ps beneficiary will be given to
supporters of local executives.
Lastly, the conditional cash transfer framework of the Pantawid
Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the DWSD will not necessarily
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solve the problem of poverty. Despite providing incentives to
families that ensure attendance of children to schools and
routine checkups of pregnant mothers, the 4Ps does not gear
implementing agencies such as the Department of Education and
Department of Health in providing these social services as
evident with the lack of classrooms, seats, books, teachers and
medication. Now that the DSWD boast its one million
strong in terms of beneficiaries, the expenditure of the DSWD for
these beneficiaries can be allotted to the lack of facilities and
materials mentioned above. With one million beneficiaries who get
a premium of up to P1400 per month, expenditure amounts to P16.8
Billion per year. The said amount, at a price of P5000/square
meter (Yamsuan 2011), can provide up to 168,000 classrooms in one
year alone. This value is greater than the total shortage of
classrooms in public schools which sums up to 76,700 high (Romero
2013). Or, if the annual budget for the 4Ps is allotted for the
salary of teachers, a higher compensation of P23,000 monthly
(Mendez 2013) to 62,000 teachers (Casayuran 2013), the listed
figure of the lack of teachers from the DepEd. Given the ratio of
one classroom to thirty students just like in private schools,
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the budget that will be used for the construction of the new
classrooms will benefit up to more than 5,000,000 students. On
the other hand, 16.8 Billion can also provide for up to more than
2,000,000 pregnancy vitamin sets, at P900 per month (GNC Women's
Prenatal Program 2013) or P8100 per pregnancy cycle. Both
computations provide a larger number of benefitted Filipinos as
compared to the one million strong boasted by the DSWD.
Evident in the arguments presented above is the fact that there
are a lot of inefficiencies and ironies involved in addressing
poverty incidence in the Philippines – that while these programs
and government institutions exist, poverty incidence is not
halted but is simply allowed to expand through time. The
disparity of the effects of these programs to their objectives
says a lot about the bureaucracy – that while it manages to
identify what the problem to be addressed is, the line on how to
address it and how to allocate the resources for it is unclear.
Alleviating poverty requires constant, systematic and relevant
solutions from the government, and while there are a lot of it
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proposed at present, the problem does not stop simply after
policies and policy implementation methods are laid out.
What determines the success of these said projects is not the
aesthetic aspect of the plan it was based from, but rather, on
how it was felt by the very people it aims to provide help for.
As Mahatma Gandhi states, “poverty is the worst form of
violence,” and engaging in a continuous but inefficient struggle
to alleviate it through the existing parliamentary solutions
simply condones the problem. At the end of the day, what
quantifies the greatness of the methods spearheaded by government
institutions is not the promises they make, but rather, how their
benefits were trickled down to the masses – because programs only
make sense, when they fill the gap between “what it is” and “who
it is for,” without the latter, it is deemed meaningless and a
waste of time. Without considering the latter, poverty is only
addressed conceptually, feigning government irresponsiveness and
incompetence through facades provided by programs, when funds can
simply be allocated through better means. Without the latter,
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violence becomes imminent as poverty becomes immortalized time
and time again.
Tables and Figures
AREA
POVERTY THRESHOLDPhilippine Peso
POVERTYINCIDENCE
%Families
MAGNITUDEOF
POVERTY#FamiliesALL
AREAS URBAN RURAL
Philippines 15,057 17,035 14,123 26.9 4,677,305National Capital Region (NCR) 20,566 7.1 167,316Cordillera Admin Reg'n (CAR) 16,810 17,316 15,895 28.8 878,050Ilocos Region (Region I) 15,956 16, 284 15,699 26.2 248,443Cagayan Valley (Region II) 13,791 15, 450 12,973 20.5 126,726Central Luzon (Region III) 17,298 17, 589 15,474 16.8 320,109CALABARZON (Region IV a) 17,161 17,779 16,771 16.7 374,952MIMAROPA (Region IV b) 14,800 15,420 14,184 43.7 238,489Bicol Region (Region V) 15,015 18,493 14,027 41.8 422,278Western Visayas (Region VI) 14,405 14,759 14,515 31.1 425,571Central Visayas (Region VII) 13,390 14,482 12,741 30.3 391,484Eastern Visayas (Region VIII) 13,974 14,420 13,325 40.7 331,426Zamboanga Peninsula(Region IX) 13,219 16,160 12,898 40.2 250,696
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Northern Mindanao (Region X) 14,199 15,805 13,687 36.1 285,054Davao Region (Region XI) 14,942 17,221 13,860 30.6 257,554SOCCKSARGEN Region(Region XII) 14,225 16,783 12,878 33.8 253,009Caraga (Region XIII) 15,249 17,270 14,059 45.4 201,929ARMM (Region XIV) 15,533 16,491 14,528 55.3 295,220
Table 1. PCUP 2006 Poverty Situation in the Philippines
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