MANILA, Philippines 鈥� An up-to-date Philippine poverty threshold is set to come out in May 2025, according to Sen. Grace Poe.
Speaking on behalf of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) during the Senate鈥檚 Thursday deliberations on the proposed 2025 funding, Poe said the poverty threshold is being updated yearly.
It was Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel who initially raised the matter about the poverty threshold, citing Neda鈥檚 earlier disclosure that a Filipino only needs to spend P64 per day for meals not to be considered food-poor.
鈥淚n May 2025听 new data will come out, but now we are still using the metrics that were read earlier,鈥� said Poe.
READ:
Pimentel then took this opportunity to press Poe, asking her to lay down what Neda鈥檚 formula is to come up with new data.
鈥淭his is what they should have done from the beginning: A food nutritionist will come up with a nutritious meal plan based on what鈥檚 available and then that meal plan will be submitted to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and then the PSA will get a price collection for the ingredients that are being used, of course also taking into consideration at that time electricity cost and other charges for them to be able to determine a poverty threshold,鈥� said Poe.
鈥淏ut it will be an interagency group that will come up with a recommendation,鈥� she added.
Pimentel said Neda鈥檚 earlier disclosure about P60 per day meal was controversial, pointing out that it gained many negative reactions where some netizens dared Neda officials to live with only P60 a day.
READ: You鈥檙e not food poor if you spend at least P64 daily for meals 鈥� Neda听
Earlier, Poe said that there are 鈥渃ertain things鈥� that have to be adjusted鈥攆or instance, the computation of the poverty threshold, noting that it might not be 鈥渨orkable鈥� anymore.
According to Neda chief Arsenio Balisacan, the country鈥檚 food-poor threshold in 2021 was at P55, while it was at P63 in 2023.