NEDA chief: Persons spending P64 below for 3 meals a day considered 'food poor'

Individuals who spend P64 below for three meals a day are considered "food poor," according to NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

At the first day of the Senate hearing on the proposed 2025 budget, Balisacan was asked the current threshold for one to be classified as "food poor."

"As of 2023, a monthly food threshold for a family of five is 9,581 pesos. It comes out about P64 per person," Balisacan said.

Baliscan said the amount would cover three daily meals per person.

This amount has increased since 2021 where the 'food poor' threshold was P55 per person and it is expected to increase to P67 in 2025, according to Balisacan.

The NEDA chief explained that they are only changing the threshold based on inflation so they can monitor if the policies of the government on poverty are effective.

"The reason we are keeping it constant, in real terms after adjusting for inflation, is just to ensure that we are tracking properly the changes and allow us to understand whether our policies, our programs are working insofar as these are able to reduce poverty," Balisacan said.

This prompted the senators to urge the NEDA to review their threshold to ensure that the poverty forecast is accurate.

"There are certain things that need to be constant, but there are certain things that have to be adjusted because when you compute poverty thresholds using an old number which is obviously not workable anymore, P20 per meal eh hindi totoo 'yung poverty forecast [niyo] (P20 per meal means your poverty forecast is not true.)," Senator Grace Poe said.

Balisacan agreed that it is about time to revisit their threshold.

"The basket has not been changed for some time. Although, the value of that basket has been adjusted for inflation... We’ll be revisiting, I think it's due for revisit of that poverty threshold, natin kasi medyo matagal na rin, more than a decade na 'yon since it was set. (I think the poverty threshold of ours is due for revisit  since it’s been so long, it was set more than a decade before.) I think, the changes in the economy warrant a revisit already of the threshold," he said.

"The Department of Health and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, sila ho ang nag-determine ng basket na 'yon (they were the ones who determined that basket) and what constitutes a reasonable food basket that could meet the nutritional particularly calorie requirement," he added.

Balisacan said the revisiting of the food basket will consider the food preferences, the relative prices of goods, among others.—RF, GMA Integrated News