Buluan, Maguindanao”•Maguindanao is almost off the list of the country’s top 10 poorest provinces, according to the latest poverty incidence figures from the Philippine Statistics Authority from its survey conducted during the first semester of 2018.
Basilan, which had been out of PSA’s list of 10 poorest provinces in 2015, is back, topping the chart of the latest published poverty survey. It is followed by Lanao del Sur and Sulu, Davao Occidental, Dinagat Island, and Eastern Samar in the upper five of the list.
Maguindanao, dubbed “MagandaNOW” by the provincial government, has moved up to ninth in the first semester of 2018 from the seventh-poorest slot in 2015.
But Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu said most reports on the poverty index are widely misunderstood locally in the course of the survey.
The governor said it often means that only salaries from government employment could constitute a “family income” and that the “expenditures” refer to expenses of non-employed family members, even if they are also earning by means other than government employment.
Mangudadatu, who is exiting his post after winning three consecutive terms from 2010, said Maguindanao’s locally-generated revenues from income taxes and business and real property taxes are utilized substantially to fund college education for deserving children of poor families through the Maguindanao Program on Education Assistance and Community Empowerment (MagPEACE).
The program has become the vehicle for some 7,000 or more students raised in poor families to overcome the hard way through earning their college degrees, he said.
The level of simple literacy rate in Maguindanao has increased 8.3 percent-points from 81.0 percent in 2010 to 89.3 percent in 2015, among the province’s 834,304 household population aged 10 years old and above.
Mangudadatu said local government programs on education, medical health, and social services like access to potable water, are usually factored-in in poverty surveys.
But in the case of the PSA figures, these are tabulated independently from figures obtaining in the family income and expenditure surveys (FIES) which is more often published, he said.
The provincial government has also approved a School Board Resolution on the utilization of P13.3 million of the province’s share of its Internal Revenue Allotment last year for the repair and rehabilitation of five school buildings and sports development activities.
The governor, who is aspiring to take the congressional seat of his brother, administration senatorial bet Dong Mangudadatu, noted that Maguindanao has won the Seal of Good Local Governance in 2016 and the Good Financial Housekeeping aspect of the SGLG in 2017.
More of the province’s LGUs have also won SGLG recognition at the municipal level.
He named the winning municipalities either for the SGLG Award or the GFH recognition as Upi (2016); Barira, Buldon, Datu Abdullah Sangki, Datu Paglas, Sen. Salipada K. Pendatun, Kabultalan, Sultan Sa Barongis, Matanog, Parang, Radjah Buayan (2017), Sultan Kudarat, Sultan Mastura, and again, Upi (2017) and Sharif Aguak (2018).
In 2018, Maguindanao was again in the Department of Interior and Local Government’s list of Passers of Good Financial Housekeeping.
The governor said one of the main causes of poverty in Moro areas is high incidence of family displacement due to armed conflict”•which according to a study funded by the US Agency for International Development, is often triggered by cases of “rido” or armed clan feuds.
“Remember that year when both Houses of the US Congress passed concurrent resolutions condemning the Maguindanao Massacre on November 23, 2009,” he said, explaining the formation of the Maguindanao Task Force Reconciliation and Unification to build a constituency of inclusive peace and advocacy for reconciliation.
Mangudadatu said the province’s agricultural production from plantation-based high-value commercial crops has increased both in terms of areas planted from 18,077 hectares in 2014 to 18,192 hectares in 2015 for the banana of all varieties.
These numbers are expected to increase as a European conglomerate of Russian investors has signified interest in putting up agricultural capital into the former Camp Abubakar in Matanog, Maguindanao.
Areas cultivated with mango trees have also slightly increased from 11,108 hectares in 2014 to 18,192 hectares in 2015.
The province’s level of rubber production has declined, probably due to a slow rehabilitation process in the agri-industrial farm production sector and to recent fall in the price levels of rubber in the world market.
In terms of production level, indicators on both high-value commercial crops have also improved from 336,244 metric tons in 2014 to 373,762.94 MT in 2015; and from 8,172 metric tons in 2014 to 8,679.60 MT in 2015 for Banana and Mango, respectively.