Even after more than 20 years of implementing anti-poverty measures and ensuring that Filipinos are given equal opportunities to increase their incomes, the divide between the rich and the poor has remained wide, according to a population expert.
Instead of narrowing the inequality between the rich and the poor in the Philippines, population expert and former Asian Development Bank (ADB) Lead Economist Ernesto Pernia said the country’s GNI coefficient, a measure of inequality, remained the highest in Asia.
As of 2009, Pernia estimated that the country’s GNI coefficient was at 0.46—the same as in 1985.
The worst level of inequality was reached in 1997 when the GNI coefficient was at 0.50, while the most equal level in income was in 1988 when the GNI coefficient was at 0.45.
“You will see that there was practically no improvement in income inequality. Meaning there has been no reduction in the coefficient. It should be going down toward zero but it has been staying up at about 0.46 and 0.45,” Pernia said in his presentation during the launch on Wednesday of the State of the World Population 2011, a report released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
The UNFPA now regards the Philippines as the 12th most populous country in the world with 94.9 million people.
Pernia also cited data from the ADB, which showed the income share of the poorest in the Philippines accounting only 5.6 percent of the country’s national income. This was also the lowest share compared to the country’s neighbors.
The income share of the poorest was the highest in Laos at 8.5 percent, followed by Indonesia with 7.4 percent; Vietnam, 7.1 percent; Cambodia, 6.5 percent; Malaysia, 6.4 percent; and Thailand, 6.1 percent.
According to Pernia, this high-income inequality stems from the country’s high population rate. “Persistent high fertility owing to lack of access to effective [reproductive health and family planning] exacerbates poverty and hunger,” Pernia said. “The larger the family size, the higher the poverty incidence. This has not changed over the last 24 years. If anything, poverty incidence among households with fewer children has dropped while among households with many children has risen.”
With a fertility rate of 3.1 percent, the UNFPA estimates that the country’s population will reach 155 million in 2050 and as much as 178 million by 2100. When compared to its counterparts in Southeast Asia, the Philippines will rank third after Indonesia and Cambodia, who will have a population of 293 million and 104 million, respectively in 2050.
By 2100 the Philippines is expected to outpace Cambodia which will see its population decline to 83 million in that year. The Philippines will play second fiddle to Indonesia, which will also see a slight reduction in its population to around 254 million in that year. By 2100 the Philippines will be the only country among its neighbors to still see an increase in population.
“The issue of population is a critical one for our humanity and for the Earth. But let us be clear: it is not a matter of space. The population question is one of human equity and opportunity. We would all agree—the most striking is the inequity that exists in the world today,” UNFPA Representative in the Philippines Ugochi Daniels said in her welcome remarks during the launch.
“Within countries, wide disparities between the rich and the poor are also glaring. Looking at fertility in the local context, Filipino women in the poorest quintile have an average of six children, two more than they desire, because of the lack of access to reproductive health information and services,” she said.
Daniels said another study by the US-based think tank Guttmacher Institute stated in a 2008 report that there were 3.4 million pregnancies in the Philippines and more than half of this, or around 1.9 million were unplanned. This is largely due to the lack of education and access to services by many women, particularly, the poor.
With 49 percent of the country’s population live in cities, this means that Filipinos are competing not only for resources but also opportunities for work. This is the reason the Philippines is now the third largest migrant-sending country in the world, she said, after China and India.
To help alleviate the population problem, former National Economic and Development Authority Chief Solita Monsod said what is needed is family planning. But, at the heart of family planning, she said, is an empowered Filipina.
“We have to unleash the power of women and girls. You have to talk about women because an educated woman will educate her children, if a woman is healthy, her children are healthy, an educated woman is superman!” Monsod said.
