The Duterte administration’s new taxation and economic policies are taking their toll on the country’s poor, which comprise 21.6 percent of the population, they said. The Philippine Statistics Authority pegged the poverty threshold at P10,969, and the national food threshold for a family of five at P7,638, the amount required so they could have three meals a day. He said even modest results from these three key areas would have a clear transformational impact on the lives of the poor. “However, if there are at least two breadwinners, families can escape poverty. Quirino Rep. Dakila Carlo Cua, chair of the House ways and means committee, said the government’s promised social protection measures could cushion the impact of inflation on poor families.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer June 15, 2018 23:26 UTC