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SORSOGON
CITY—Behind
the picturesque scenery of the coastal
municipality of
Donsol,
Sorsogon, that has captured international attention
owing to the name it has earned as the “Whale Shark
Capital of the World” is a grim picture of poverty,
statistics show.
Gemma
Lucenario, chief of the Sorsogon Provincial Statistics
Office (PSO), said here over the weekend that with
Donsol’s 69.1-percent poverty incidence, the
municipality ranks as the poorest among the 14
municipalities and one city of the province.
This
means that despite the booming tourism industry of the
municipality, almost seven of every 10 families in the
area cannot sustain their food and other basic-amenity
requirements, as found out by the National Statistical
Classification Board that evaluated data gathered early
this year by the PSO.
The data
were obtained through a survey that gathered the
perception of respondents on several indicators such as
family income and expenditures; employment; sanitation,
particularly toilets and access to education,
electricity; potable water and health services.
While
infrastructure and expensive facilities like beach
houses, cottages and other amenities were put in place
to make the stay of tourists comfortable in that
municipality, those concerned failed to provide for
basic necessities like potable water and toilets, among
others, for the residents, she lamented.
Perhaps
local leaders should take another look at the
Philippines’ commitment to the United Nation’s
Millennium Development Goals so that they are guided on
what it is all about, Lucenario suggested.
The
peace-and-order situation in the municipality was also
given weight in the evaluation based on respondents’
perceptions, and despite its being a key tourist
destination in the country, Donsol was rated poor in
security and orderliness, she said.
“It is
indeed unfortunate that while the tourism industry of
Donsol has been regularly picking up substantial
revenues for the municipal government and all its
stakeholders, poverty lingers among majority of its
residents,” Lucenario said.
That
goes to show that only a very few among families
residing within the municipality, whose classification
has been elevated from fourth to third class by the
Department of Finance in 2005, benefits from the
industry, she said.
Another
sad story in terms of the local poverty situation,
Lucenario said, are the municipalities of Pilar and
Matnog that are both high revenue earners, being centers
of the province’s maritime industry.
Pilar,
which boasts of its seaport as among the busiest in the
province, being the jumping board between Masbate and
major areas in the Bicol mainland, posted a 61.2-percent
poverty incidence, making it third among Sorsogon towns
with the highest poverty ratings. It is a second-class
municipality with an annual revenue of not less than P40
million.
Matnog,
meanwhile, is fourth despite its being host to the
Matnog Ferry Terminal, the biggest roll-on roll-off
facility in the region that serves as jumping board
between Luzon and the Visayas down to the Mindanao
regions. Lucenario said the municipality’s poverty
incidence is 57.38 percent.
Other
Sorsogon municipalities included among the five with
most impoverished families are Castilla, which ranks
second with 61.6 percent poverty incidence, and
Magallanes, fifth with 56 percent, both coastal
municipalities within the First Congressional District
of the province, she said.
All
these five towns are considered hotbeds of insurgency,
although Castilla has relatively been liberated from the
influence of the New People’s Army since two years ago
following a declaration of an all-out war against
insurgency by the local government under then mayor, now
Vice Gov. Renato Laurinaria.
This
city, the provincial capital, posted the lowest poverty
incidence with only 34.23 percent, followed by Gubat and
Casiguran, second- and fourth-class towns, respectively,
Lucenario said. |
