3. Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and other natural
calamities that have struck the Philippines may
not drag down the country’s overall growth but
they could push more households into
“transient” poverty, the National Economic and
Development Authority (Neda) said Friday.
Government economists believe a significant
portion of the country’s poor are “transient
poor”—people who were previously not poor
but were suddenly pushed below the poverty
line because of untoward incidents, including
natural calamities.
The latest poverty report said that 27.9 percent
of Filipinos were living below the poverty line in
the first semester of 2012.

4. Neda Director General Arsenio Balisacan said with the
series of natural calamities hitting the country, the
government could not discount the possibility that
some people living in the affected areas had been
pushed into poverty because of the damage wrought
on their properties and sources of income.
He said the Neda would study the impact of Yolanda
and the recent earthquake on the country’s poverty
incidence.
Yolanda hit the Visayas less than a month after a
magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the central
Philippine region last month, severely affecting Bohol
and Cebu provinces.
Based on the Neda’s assessment, the Philippine
economy could still maintain the robust growth it had
exhibited in the first semester despite the earthquake
and Yolanda.

5. However, while the impact of natural calamities
on the country’s gross domestic product (GDP)
was not much of a concern, the social impact
should be a worry, said Balisacan on the
sidelines of a partnership ceremony between
Ayala Corp. and the UP School of Economics,
which will conduct a series of economic forums
in the next three years.
Neda Deputy Director General Emmanuel
Esguerra, meanwhile, said that the government
agencies concerned were developing a program
that would serve as a safety net against
transient poverty in times of calamity.
In particular, he said, the Department of Labor
and Employment,

6. Department of Agriculture and Department of
Social Welfare and Development, among
other agencies, were designing a program to
help families affected by calamities recover
from lost income sources.
Such a program, details of which are still
being finalized, is expected to be part of the
revised Philippine Development Plan that will
be released before the end of the year.
Esguerra said that the program may include
financial help as well as technical assistance.
“The idea is that the program should be
responsive in a timely manner,” Esguerra said.