Regional disparities in the Philippines: structural drivers and policy considerations

Abstract

This article provides a review of regional inequalities in the Philippines, one of the most challenging countries in Southeast Asia due to its combination of continuing high population growth in both urban and rural areas and lack of gainful employment. The article connects structural drivers of regional disparities to policy options recently proposed in the important book Inequality in Asia and the Pacific, to bring about balanced regional development in Asia by: 1. improving regional connectivity, 2. transferring fiscal resources for greater investment in human capital and better access to public services in poor regions, 3. developing growth poles in lagging regions and 4. reducing barriers to within-country migration. While refinements of current policies and schemes with respect to the first three policy options might lead to curbing the persistence of regional disparities and to faster provincial poverty reduction, promoting more rural-urban migration will likely lead to a relocation of poverty to urban slums; in fact, the poverty incidence in several Philippine core provinces has risen in the last decade. The trends and patterns observed in the Philippines constitute valuable inputs for connecting structural drivers of regional disparities to specific empirical contexts in neighbouring countries and for improving regional policymaking. Zusammenfassung: Im Fokus des vorliegenden Beitrags liegt die Betrachtung regionaler Ungleichheiten auf den Philippinen. Aufgrund einer Kombination aus beständig hohem Bevölkerungswachstum, sowohl in städtischen als auch in ländlichen Gebieten, sowie dem Mangel an Erwerbsmöglichkeiten, steht das Land besonderen sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Herausforderungen gegenüber. Diskutiert werden auf der einen Seite die strukturellen Antriebskräfte regionaler Ungleichheiten und auf der anderen Seite politische Handlungsoptionen, die jüngst in einem grundlegenden Werk zur Ungleichheit in Asien und dem Pazifikraum vorgelegt wurden: 1. Verbesserung der regionalen Konnektivität, 2. Steuerliche Umstrukturierung zur Förderung und Inwertsetzung des Humankapitals und einer Verbesserung des Zugangs zu öffentlichen Dienstleistungen vor allem in benachteiligten Regionen, 3. Entwicklung und Förderung von Wachstumszentren in benachteiligten Regionen, 4. Abbau von Mobilitäts-und Migrationshemmnissen innerhalb des Landes. Anhand vorliegender statistischer Daten lässt sich aufzeigen, dass politische Maßnahmen im Sinne der drei erstgenannten Optionen durchaus dazu geeignet sein können, regionale Ungleichheiten und Armut im Allgemeinen zu mindern. Eine Verbesserung der Mobilität hingegen hätte vermutlich die Folge, dass ländliche Armut lediglich in urbane Räume verlagert würde-ein Trend, der sich tatsächlich anhand der Daten der zurückliegenden 10 Jahre beobachten lässt. Die aufgezeigten Trends und Muster auf den Philippinen liefern wertvolle Hinweise auf die regionalen Ungleichheiten zugrundeliegenden Antriebskräfte und könnten als Ausgangspunkt für entsprechende und vergleichende Analysen in den Nach...

Offshoring of white-collar services

“…The presence of ABS jobs changes the consumption pattern and helps to move up the class status. The contradictory arguments for the same city were provided by Andriesse (2017). He argues that in spite of a certain size of ABS industry, the poverty incidence has not improved significantly and in year 2015 was almost at the same level as in year 2006.…”

Primary Sector Value Chains, Poverty Reduction, And Rural Development Challenges In The Philippines

“…Consequently, manufacturing has not been an absorber of rural‐urban labor migration flows. In Indonesia and Thailand, civil servants and technocrats have been given substantial autonomy to not only formulate, but also implement longer term socioeconomic and socio‐spatial policies. In the Philippines the public sector seems largely to have been captured by a rent‐seeking, neo‐patrimonial oligarchy, who is more interested in expanding its personal economic wealth and political influence rather than in poverty reduction, land redistribution, and rural development (Raquiza Andriesse ).…”

“…Furthermore, farmers in coastal areas and seaweed growers continue to perceive fisheries as an alternative or fall‐back livelihood strategy. These issues notwithstanding policy makers should be cautious of promoting rural‐urban migration (Table ) since most people lack the skills needed to find a decent job in the city or abroad (Andriesse ).…”

“…Against the background of global trends in rural‐urban migration, metropolitan sprawl, industrialization policies, and subnational‐governments’ leapfrogging strategies for specialising in modern service industries, it is sometimes forgotten that a substantial proportion of rural populations will remain rural and, unfortunately, appears likely to remain relatively poor compared with urban dwellers. Finding a decent job in the big city is not a solution for everyone, often because of human‐capital shortages (Sheng ; Andriesse ). Poverty reduction and enablement of escape from the middle‐income trap cannot be achieved solely by promoting urbanization, industrialization, and the creative economy, such as advertising, software design, fashion, museums and music—industries that global cities attract to rejuvenate their economic structure.…”

“…Recently,Andriesse andLee 2017 andFabinyi (2016) have conducted research explicitly linking rural coastal communities in the Philippines to Asian/Global value chains.2 Firms like Shemberg and MCPI Corporation are global carrageenan exporters and are also engaged in research and development.3 See Sumadio, Andriesee, Aprilianti and Sulyat 2017 for a more comprehensive discussion of this point.4 The Philippine statistical authority does publish data on land use, yield, production, trade, etc, but not the number of smallholders and plantation owners.…”