NSCB Resolution No. 11
Series of 2006

APPROVING THE REFINEMENTS
IN THE OFFICIAL ESTIMATION METHODOLOGY
FOR THE 2003 FINAL POVERTY STATISTICS AND 2000 BACK ESTIMATES

WHEREAS, NSCB Resolution No. 5, Series of 2005, Approving the Interim Modifications in the Official Estimation Methodology for the 2003 Poverty Statistics was issued on 24 January 2005;

WHEREAS, the Resolution approved the release of preliminary estimates of national and regional level poverty and instructed the Technical Committee on Poverty Statistics (TC-PovStat) to conduct an overall review of the poverty estimation methodology and come up with a revised methodology which would allow the generation of provincial-level poverty estimates, notwithstanding the design limitations of the 2003 Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES), the main source of data for poverty estimation;

WHEREAS, in compliance with the Resolution, the NSCB Technical Staff computed the revised 2003 provincial poverty estimates and 2000 back estimates following the refinements on the methodology as recommended by the TC-PovStat;

WHEREAS, as stated in the Resolution, the adoption of the new master sample in the 2003 FIES, which shifted the sampling domain from provinces to regions precluded the generation of urban-rural disaggregated poverty estimates for five provinces with no sample urban barangays (Abra, Batanes, Marinduque, Siquijor, and Southern Leyte);

WHEREAS, in the interest of improving the accuracy and reliability of the official poverty statistics, the TC-PovStat recommended the following refinements in the methodology to be used for the 2003 final poverty statistics:

(a) Use of the provincial rural food threshold as the estimate of the overall provincial food threshold instead of the weighted average of the urban and rural provincial food thresholds as previously stipulated in the Resolution;

(b) Retain the following procedures as previously provided in the Resolution:

1. Use of the exact band for determining the reference population for the food expenditure to total basic expenditure (FE/TBE) ratio;
    
2. For the five provinces with no sample urban barangays:
   • The five provinces will be excluded in the derivation of the urban-rural disaggregated poverty estimates for the regions under which the five provinces are classified, namely, CAR and Regions II, IV-B, VII, and VIII, but this should be properly noted in the tables to be released; and
   • The five provinces will be excluded in the derivation of the urban-rural disaggregated national estimate of poverty.

WHEREAS, in a referendum conducted among the members of the TC-PovStat from 16 to 20 May 2006, eight members, including the Chair, favored the release of the final poverty estimates for 2003 down to the provincial level and seven favored the release of the final estimates only at the regional and national levels, with the other five members failing to respond to the referendum by the set deadline;

WHEREAS, TC-PovStat members who favored the release of only regional estimates did so due to the high coefficients of variation (CVs) of some provincial poverty estimates, while those who favored the release of provincial estimates did so primarily in response to the users’ demand for these data and to maintain relevance of the official poverty statistics;

WHEREAS, three of the five members who failed to respond to the referendum by the set deadline indicated their positions during the Board meeting on 22 May 2006 - two members coming from the National Statistics Office (NSO) favored the release of only regional estimates, while the member from the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) favored the release of provincial estimates – bringing the count to nine in favor of releasing only regional estimates and an equal number in favor of releasing provincial estimates;

WHEREAS, the Chairman of the Board, during the same meeting, expressed his view that regional estimates would not be very useful since regions in the country are not political units (except for ARMM) but are merely administrative structures to facilitate the administration of government services;

WHEREAS, after due deliberation and discussion, the other members of the Board did not express objections to releasing the 2003 final poverty estimates down to the provincial level;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED AS IT IS HEREBY RESOLVED, that the Board approve the recommendations of the TC-PovStat to adopt the refinements in the official estimation methodology as enumerated above to be used for the 2003 final poverty statistics and 2000 back estimates;

BE IT RESOLVED FURTHER, that the Board approve the release of the final poverty estimates for 2003 at the national, regional, and down to the provincial level in response to the needs of the data users and to maintain relevance of the statistics released by the Philippine Statistical System (PSS), subject to the condition that the users be properly cautioned on the limitations of the statistics by releasing the following: (a) measures of reliability (CV) of the estimates; and (b) confidence intervals of estimates.

Approved this 22nd day of May 2006, in Pasig City.

Attested by:

ROMULO A. VIROLA
Secretary General