COTABATO CITY, Maguindanao—Five of the country’s poorest municipalities are found in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao, with all of them registering a significant increase in poverty incidence since the last research period, a Philippine Statistics Authority executive said.
The ranking was based on the last national statistical research conducted in 2012.
Zita Albacea, executive director of the Philippine Statistical Research and Training Institute, an-nounced during a recent regional forum at the Davao Convention Center said that the poorest towns are Bacolod Kalawi, Lumbayanague and Piagapo in Lanao del Sur and Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Talayan in Maguindanao.
Bacolod Kalawi registered the country’s highest poverty incidence with 84.8 percent. This means that for every 100 people in the locality, 85 are poor. The town’s poverty incidence worsened from 29.4 percent in 2009, the previous research period.
Albacea defined poverty threshold as “the minimum income/expenditure required for a family/individual to meet the basic food and non-food requirements.”
The country’s annual per capita poverty threshold was pegged at P18,935.
Datu Saudi Ampatuan ranked second poorest with a poverty incidence of 83 percent, which increased from 43.4 percent in 2009.
The third poorest town was Lumbayanague with a poverty incidence of 81.9 percent in 2012, also up from 55.7 percent in 2009.
Piagapo was fourth poorest with a poverty incidence of 81.4 percent in 2012, up from 37 percent in 2009, with Talayan coming fifth at 80.3 percent, up from 43.4 percent in 2009.
