The Philippines’ richest provinces are compared to Africa’s progressive countries like Jamaica and Turkmenistan. The last 10 poorest provinces are “comparable to the world’s poorest countries in Africa such as Niger, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad.”
That is the finding of the United Nations sponsored study which gave the analogy. The study ranked the “top and Bottom 10” provinces in terms of their Human Development Index (HDI). HDI is a measure of well-being based on life expectancy, literacy enrollment ratio and per capita income.
Life expectancy is just the average span of life of the people living in a community, province, region or country. Literacy is the number of years the people studied in school and its functionality. Enrollment ratio is the number of people of school age attending schools in proportion to those out of schools. While the per capita income is the average annual income of each Filipino.
And here are the top 10 provinces as to well-being from the highest to the lowest: are Benguet, Laguna, Batanes, Rizal, Cavite, Nueva Vizcaya, Pampanga, Bataan, Bulacan and Ilocos Norte.
The last top 10 of the list in its descending order are Lanao del Norte, Eastern Samar, Western Samar, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Norte, Masbate, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao and Sulu.
The Philippines Human Development Report (PHDR) is a 150 page report Human Development Network prepared. This is a non-profit organization the United Nations Development Programme and the New Zealand Agency for International Development supported in the preparation of the PHDR.
The HDI ranking included the 77 provinces in the Philippines Since Metro Manila is a group of adjacent cities, Metro Manila is not included in the ranking. Moreover, Metro Manila is the city of the Philippines’ political and economic powers.
This is the fifth PHDR the Human Development Network has undertaken since 1994. And the latest findings are consistent with the previous findings. The Philippines’ poorest provinces were at the same time the “most conflict-ridden” in Mindanao.
According to the United Nations, human development is the “process of enabling people to have wider choices”. So that highly literate individuals or individuals with fairly high income get several alternative choices on matters concerning them.
According to Toby Monsod, HDN Coordinator, “HDI measures an areas living standard not by its visible urbanity, growth of factories or commercial centers…but by how much the people enjoy public goods like health and education.”
A good example is Benguet – a mountainous province with mining and agricultural based economy which enjoys a high “well-being”. Benguet outscored provinces like, Rizal, Bulacan, Cavite and Pampanga which have sprawling urban centers, industrial parks and factories. “A province may have a high income level, but may still have low HDI if the money is not translated into investments in health or education,” Monsod pointed out.
The UN – adopted measure of HDI ranges from zero (0) to one (1). Any province closer to 1, has a better well-being. Areas that score between 0 and .49 are categorized as having “low human development”. Those between .50 and .79 belong to “medium” and those having .8 to 1 are in the “high” bracket.
“Using the range, the poorest province, Sulu, got .30 and the best performing Benguet scored 0.74”. Where does Aklan belong? It is neither a province with “high” well-being nor it belongs to a poorest province.
But our best performing province, Benguet matches the not so well-off country in Africa, Jamaica. The Philippines and the Filipinos can do more than that and greatly improve their well –being. Maybe Filipinos has chosen to be poor even if they can be riched.
The Philippines is endowed with much natural resources. Her oceans, lakes and rivers are so productive of fishes, shells and other marine lives. Yet, what are we doing with it? Exterminate them by illegal fishing with explosives, pesticides. Our mountains are rich with mineral resources, of sauna and fauna, trees. Yet we are destroying them. Our agricultural lands are fertile with favorable weather and climatic conditions. But Filipinos are developing these to their advantage? Water are unutilized, draining to the sea.
Yes, Filipinos are rich, yet they have chosen to be poor.
Are we complacent? So that our resources are going to waste? What do we do with the Philippine coconuts? Water in our rivers systems? Trees? Yes, we Filipinos can be rich, have wide choices, high well-being. But we are viewed by foreigners as a “happy-go-lucky” people, easily pleased (napaka babaw ang kaligayahan). Are you? We are just happy as a people. We even smile in the face of adversity. We are surviving.
Really, Filipinos can be GREAT. If we can only take good care of resources, both natural and personal, we can be a people of high WELL-BEING. /MP mailto:madyaas_pen@yahoo.com
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