Acting Economic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said Monday poverty incidence may temporarily climb to 17.5 percent this year because of the economic slowdown amid to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chua, who spoke during the opening of the four-part webinar series of the Annual Public Policy Conference, said the “contraction of the economy this year may result in the temporary yet slight reversal of the significant gains made” in poverty reduction.
He said, however, the goal of bringing down poverty to 14 percent by 2022 might still be doable despite the crisis with the passage of several economic reform measures.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that as of 2018, poverty incidence among population, or the proportion of poor Filipinos whose per capita income is insufficient to meet their basic food and non-food needs, was 16.7 percent. This represented about 17.7 million Filipinos living in poverty in 2018.
Chua said several laws were passed by Congress, including the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act which was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte to help the poor.
“For 2021, we are currently working with both houses of Congress to pass a budget that will be more responsive to the needs of the country, including the creation of around 1.6 million jobs as the infrastructure budget is increased to P1.12 trillion which will ensure continuous job creation,” Chua said.
He said the relaxing the quarantine restrictions starting in June yielded positive results. “Some monthly indicators such as the growth of the power transmission energy delivery, volume of manufacturing production, and merchandise trade have generally begun to [demonstrate a] U-turn since May and June, and continued to show improvement in more recent data releases,” Chua said.
He the inflation rate also remained low and stable because of the adequate supply of essential commodities and reforms like the Rice Tariffication Law.
Chua said the lower quarantine restrictions opened more sectors of the economy and helped bring back jobs quickly.
“We are seeing a significant decline in the unemployment rate from 17.7 percent in April at the height of the quarantine to 10 percent in July when we relaxed the quarantine, and also a decline in the underemployment rate. All in all, 7.5 million jobs were restored to the economy in just one quarter as the quarantine restriction eased,” Chua said.
He asked the government to remain “vigilant against possible risks” and ensure that “policy strategies are responsive” to the current situation.
Chua said the government should “provide the direction and impetus for innovation” and “set an example by recalibrating its systems and processes to suit the demands of the new normal”.
He said these would involve using new technologies and creative solutions to make public service delivery more effective and efficient.
He said to make the “development and diffusion of innovation across the bureaucracy and the country” prosper, an effective coordination across government levels should be practiced.
Chua said “building strategic partnerships with the business sector, academe, and the scientific community is an effective way to address resource constraints and tapping the wealth of ideas, technologies, expertise, and networks that reside outside of government”.
“Effective public-private cooperation in technology generation, testing, polishing, and transfer is crucial to make governance innovation happen, especially in the new normal,” Chua said.