Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian said President Marcos’ vision to eradicate hunger by 2027 and achieve a single-digit poverty incidence by the end of his term in 2028 is right on track, as the country’s poverty rate continues to decline.

Gatchalian cited the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report indicating a decrease in the country's poverty rate from 18.1 percent in 2021 to 15.5 percent in 2023.

“The preliminary data from the PSA showing that the poor population declined to 17.54 million from 19.99 million in 2023 is a good indicator insofar as the DSWD’s anti-poverty programs are concerned,” Gatchalian said in a statement on Tuesday, July 23.

PSA defines poverty incidence as the proportion of Filipino families whose incomes are insufficient to meet their minimum basic food and non-food needs, as determined by the poverty threshold.

As part of the government’s effort to combat poverty, DSWD’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) serves as the national poverty reduction strategy and human capital investment program that provides conditional cash transfer to poor households for a maximum period of seven years, to improve health, nutrition and education.

“There is a misconception that 4Ps is ayuda. On the contrary, it is a development program that aims to break intergenerational poverty o yung kahirapan na nasasalin sa mga anak. Eradicating poverty is a long game. The directive of President Marcos is for a whole-of-government, whole-of-nation approach in bringing down the poverty incidence to single digit by the end of his term in 2028,” Gatchalian said.

The 4Ps, which was launched in 2008 and institutionalized in 2019 through Republic Act No. 11310 or the 4Ps Act, provides cash grants to 4.4 million households, or 22 million individuals, whose children receive subsidies to complete elementary and senior high school.

Household beneficiaries of the 4Ps are classified as poor and near-poor based on the Standardized Targeting System and the poverty threshold issued by the PSA at the time of selection.

They must have members who are 18 years old and below or who are pregnant at the time of registration, and they must be willing to comply with a set of conditions.

Based on the preliminary results of the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), which the PSA conducted in July 2023 (collected income data from January to June 2023) and January 2024 (collected income data from July to December 2023), the poverty incidence among families was registered at 10.9 percent or equivalent to 3 million poor families in 2023.

At the individual level, 15.5 percent of Filipinos, or about 17.54 million Filipinos were poor in 2023.

PSA data showed that this is equivalent to 17.54 million poor Filipinos last year.

Food stamp program

Gatchalian also cited that DSWD’s “Food Stamp Program: Walang Gutom 2027” was designed to address hunger by targeting 1 million households considered “food-poor,” using data from the PSA.

“The fight against hunger is doable and President Marcos is very supportive of this DSWD program which is now on a scale up to 21 provinces from the original five pilot areas in July 2023,” the DSWD chief said.

The FSP aims to reduce the incidence of voluntary hunger experienced by low-income households by providing monetary-based assistance through Electronic Benefit Transfer cards that can be used to purchase select food commodities from eligible partner merchant stores.

The program also aims to reduce subsistence incidence, which is the share of the total population with per capita income lower than the per capita food threshold.

This incidence decreased to 4.3 percent from 5.9 percent two years ago, based on the PSA report.

The PSA report also estimated the number of Filipinos whose income was insufficient to buy basic food needs decreasingto 4.84 million from 6.55 million in 2021.