STATEMENT: On separate occasions, candidates Mar Roxas and Chiz Escudero accused each other of not doing enough for their respective home provinces.
Vice presidential bet Escudero, campaigning in Roxas City on Feb. 17, said Roxas could have done more for Capiz after years in public office. Among others, Escudero said the poverty gap in Capiz is “so big.”
Roxas, in turn, told journalists in Quezon City that Escudero should ask the people of Sorsogon how they are.
Roxas, the Liberal Party presidential bet, was the representative of the first district of Capiz (1993 to 2000) and a senator (2004-2010). He was the trade secretary of Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo, and Aquino’s transportation secretary and interior and local government secretary.
Escudero, an incumbent senator, was the representative of the first district of Sorsogon from 1998 to 2007 before he became a senator in 2007.
(Sources: Inquirer.net, GMA News, Aksyon sa Umaga)
FACT: Poverty-wise, Sorsogon is worse off than Capiz, according to government’s surveys on poverty in 2006, 2009 and 2012 collated by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The poverty gap was 7.4 in Sorsogon and 5.5 in Capiz in 2012. Out of the 81 provinces, Sorsogon ranked 33rd and Capiz 47th.
The severity of poverty was 2.5 in Sorsogon and 2 in Capiz for the same period. Of all the provinces, Sorsogon placed 35th and Capiz 47th.
The poverty incidence among population was 40.7 percent in Sorsogon and 27.8 in Capiz in 2012. Sorsogon ranked 28th and Capiz 51st among all the provinces.
Poverty gap is officially defined as “the total income/ expenditure shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families/ individuals with income/ expenditure below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families/ individuals.”
Severity of poverty is “the total of the squared income/expenditure shortfall (expressed in proportion to the poverty threshold) of families/ individuals with income/expenditure below the poverty threshold, divided by the total number of families/ individuals.”
Poverty incidence is “the proportion of families/individuals with per capita income/expenditure less than the per capita poverty threshold to the total number of families/individuals.”
(Sources: PSA data on poverty gap and severity of poverty and on poverty incidence)
—Jobelle Adan and Bei Zamora
(The contributors are University of the Philippines journalism majors who are fact-checking candidates for their Journalism Ethics [J110] course taught by VERA Files trustee Yvonne T. Chua.)