Eighty percent of the Philippine population, or about 69 million Filipinos, struggle to survive on P96.00 or less (about US$2). The US$2 benchmark is based on World Bank’s defi nition of poverty threshold. The threshold for the Millennium Development Goal is lower at less than US$1. Of the fi gure, 46 million Filipinos go
hungry everyday.
Based on the projection of the National Wages and Productivity Commission, a family of six living in the National Capital Region needs a living wage of P911.00, but the daily minimum wage is only P382.00. The low wage is a part of the conditions of the International Monetary Fund to ensure that the Philippines would be able to pay its debts.
The gap between the rich and the poor is getting wider, with the net worth of the ten richest Filipinos (US$12.4 billion in 2006) equivalent to the combined annual income of poorest 9.6 million families.
