Tinio to Marcos admin: Stop peddling doctored poverty figures, face the real crisis of Filipino families

ACT Teachers Representative and Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio slammed the Marcos administration for trumpeting a supposedly historic drop in poverty incidence, calling the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) report “outdated, doctored, and dangerously detached from the daily suffering of millions of Filipinos.”

The PSA reported that poverty incidence fell to 9.7 percent in 2025, claiming that 6.5 million Filipinos were lifted out of poverty. The Marcos administration hailed this as a milestone. But the latest Octa Research survey for the second quarter of 2026 exposes the rotting reality of the government’s rosy narrative: 10.3 million Filipino families—39 percent of households—now consider themselves poor, up from 35 percent or 9.2 million families in March. Self-rated hunger also rose sharply, from 17 percent to 21 percent, equivalent to 5.6 million families experiencing hunger.

“Ano ba talagang nilalahad ng Marcos administration sa PSA report? Optics o papogi? Sana naman ilahad na ang totoo. You cannot claim victory over poverty while 5.6 million Filipino families are going hungry under your watch,” Tinio said.

The solon pointed out that the PSA’s poverty threshold of P35,121 annual per capita is grossly insufficient and conservatively computed to artificially depress poverty numbers. He stressed that a decent living wage in the country today stands at P1,312 per day—a staggering reality that renders the administration’s poverty line a cruel joke.

“The threshold is pegged so low that anyone who manages to eat a handful of rice and a piece of dried fish is considered non-poor. P1,312 ang kailangan araw-araw ng isang pamilyang Pilipino para mabuhay nang marangal, pero itong administrasyong ito ay nagpapakita ng press release na lang na pababa ang kahirapan,” Tinio said.

Even economists have flagged the PSA figures as misleading, noting that the food budget used to compute the threshold was already admitted to be too low to meet basic nutritional needs by the PSA’s own chief statistician in 2024. The corrected computation has yet to be applied.

“The PSA itself admitted in 2024 that their food budget was too low for basic nutrition, yet they continue using that very same broken formula to declare a historic victory. This is not statistics. This is a cover-up,” Tinio said.

He also stressed that the 2025 figures fail to reflect the current economic shocks of 2026—persistent inflation driven by the Middle East energy crisis, slower economic growth, and massive job losses—conditions that could push millions more into poverty, as even government think tanks and the World Bank have warned.

“The report does not reflect today’s realities of rising prices, stagnant wages, and widespread joblessness. Buhay na buhay ang krisis sa ating mga pamilya, pero itong gobyerno ay nakatago sa likod ng mga fabricated figures,” Tinio said.

Tinio demanded that the administration stop using the PSA report as a smokescreen for its failures and instead address the urgent needs of the people, including substantial wage hikes, increased support for farmers and fishers, and expanded social protection.

“Ito ang totoo: mas marami nang pamilyang nagugutom, mas maraming Pilipino ang naghihirap. Walang dapat ipagmalaki ang administrasyong ito. What we need is not a victory lap but a radical change in economic priorities—away from foreign debt, foreign interests and corporate welfare, and toward the immediate welfare of the Filipino people,” Tinio ended.