Self-rated poverty drops, just an illusion.

SWS: Self-rated poverty drops to 47%.

This news came out yesterday, saying that our self-poverty rates have been declining over the years, and has been the lowest now in Arroyo's administration since the time of Marcos.

And yes, we can just see now how Malacanang would react to this news, as they did so to past surveys like this one. They are going to say, that is the result of Gloria Arroyo's programs to provide assistance to the poor. They would be quick to claim credit to such decline, and say that despite the financial global crisis, our government has found a way to alleviate poverty.

They wouldn't even acknowledge the fact that SWS noted that such result was due to belt-tightening of the Filipino families. This means that we didn't really get any richer, most of us might have even gotten poorer. This just means that self-rated poverty dropped because families have lowered their living standards. We have been reducing our expenditures to cope up with recent times. If it was because of our frugality that we feel less poor, then the government doesn't have anything to brag about right? (Except maybe telling us to save, but then again things are easier said than done. Again, practice what you preach people.)

Kawawa naman ang mga Pinoy, ang baba na ng standards.