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Lyceum of the Philippines University Batangas

High School Department

Economic Inequality in the Philippines as Highlighted in the

Literary Works of Efren Reyes Abueg

Abad, King Gabrielle F.

Abanilla, Peil Earl John C.

Atienza, Lord Cedrick

Dimaapi, Mary Myles M.

Garcia, Brian G.

10 – Isaac Newton

July 2023
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INTRODUCTION

For almost how many decades, poverty can affect people in a lot of aspects such

as mentally, physically, and emotionally. Being under the poverty line limits that person

to necessities such as housing, food, clothes, education, and medical. It causes stress

and may result in poor decision making resulting in them being stuck at the poverty line.

It also affects their health in terms of having no finances for medical needs. It can also

affect their education making it harder for them to secure a job.

Poverty is a never-ending problem due to multiple reasons. For example, poverty

is caused by multiple factors such as unemployment, poor family planning, inflation, and

the pandemic. Families from poverty tend to make more children for the sake of having

more support and extra labor on the parents' livelihood. While being unable to access

health services or sex education, the cycle of having more offspring continues. Due to

this cycle, the Philippines is experiencing an unmanaged rise in population growth. As

the population grows, the demand also grows resulting in higher prices of necessities.

According to Rutkowski (2015), most people work in the Philippines, and few are

unemployed. Economic growth creates jobs but hardly improves their quality. It largely

reproduces the existing traditional employment structure, with a high share of low-skilled

and informal jobs. Reals wages do not grow, despite growth in labor productivity. Wage

inequality is high, with a large share of the workforce in low-paid employment. On a

positive note, young workers move to more productive activities. They are better

educated than the older generation, although the share of poorly educated, low-skilled

youth is still relatively high. Moreover, many youths are idle, neither in employment nor

in education.
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There are a lot of factors why poverty still exists in today’s setup. Factors such as

unemployment, bad governance, and inflation. The most noticeable factor is inflation,

hitting 8.7 last January 2023. The rate at which prices increase over a specific period is

known as inflation. Inflation is often measured in broad terms, such as the general rise

in prices or the rise in a nation's cost of living. It affects the nation drastically especially

paired with the high percentage of Filipinos who are jobless. Making it hard for society

to afford the necessities needed to live.

Another noticeable factor why poverty is still relevant to today's setup is

unemployment. After the pandemic, a huge percentage of Filipinos have a hard time

finding a job. Recent studies show that in 2022 the Philippines' Unemployment rate was

at 6.4 percent and in 2023 it was down to 4.8. In a country with almost 100 million

people living in it like the Philippines, having 9.1 million unemployed citizens is a huge

problem, 21.4 percent of the population declares themselves unemployed. The

unemployed Filipinos are considered unemployed based on two criteria, either they do

not have a job, or they are currently looking for a job, except for housewives, students,

retired workers, and disabled people who are considered to be not part of the labor

force (Urrutia et al. 2017).

The country’s geographic position is located in a very vulnerable place. The

Philippines is located inside the Pacific Rim of Fire and situated near the Pacific Ocean,

resulting in 19-20 cyclones that enter the Philippine Area of Responsibility annually.

Natural disasters play a huge factor in why poverty still exists. The nation is also

exposed to typhoons, earthquakes, and volcano eruptions. These great calamities often
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lead to great devastation in the country which can lead to the nation having a lot of debt

to deal with.

Every nation in the world can experience poverty. But in this paper, the

researchers focus on the Philippines' poverty line. Any family can experience situations

wherein money is tight. Life is unpredictable and families can easily fall under the

poverty line under specific circumstances. The government's latest report states that as

of March 2023, 13.2 percent of Filipino families live under the poverty line. Its criterion is

a threshold income of P12,030 per month, for a family of five, in 2021.

With poverty taking a toll on Filipinos, parents often can not make enough money

to support their families. Children then have to be taken out of school to work in harsh

conditions. Statistics show that around 3.6 million children, from ages 5-17, are child

laborers in the Philippines. This is 15.9 percent of the entire population (Project, 2019).

With this data, the researchers can see that the youth is the most affected by poverty.

Being poor may affect their education and their physical aspects resulting in

unemployment and may refer to crime.

As stated by Farquharson, (2022), research has shown that family income affects

children's lives and development in a variety of ways. Living on a low income increases

parents’ stress levels, in turn affecting relationships and family dynamics. Increases in

family income can boost children's educational achievements and emotional and

physical well-being.

Poverty is a pervasive and pressing social issue that affects millions of people

around the world. By studying poverty, readers can understand the lived experiences of
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those affected by poverty. The readers can gain a better understanding of its causes,

consequences, and potential solutions. This knowledge can inform policies and

interventions aimed at reducing poverty and promoting social justice. It is also used to

raise awareness, advocate for social change, and promote initiatives related to poverty

reduction and alleviation.

Poverty has always been an issue in the world, especially here in the Philippines.

Slowly and unevenly, for the past 4 decades, the percentage of households that fall

below the official poverty line has decreased, almost one-fifth of the population of the

Philippines lived below the national poverty line in 2021 and about 2 million Filipinos

were pushed into poverty between 2018 and 2021, largely due to the economic

downturn caused by the pandemic. This paper seeks to contribute to and identify the

common problems that were seen in Efren Reyes’ literature works. In particular, the

researchers have seen the relationship between family, self, and community in poverty.

Literature maintains that all of these three themes affect our country’s poverty.

Saranggola, Mga Agos sa Disyerto, and Dilim sa Umaga are some of Efren

Abueg works. In these three works, the researchers found a common problem. Poverty

is one of our country’s main problems. It is the lack of financial resources of a person or

group of people. However, poverty is much more than just a lack of resources. It is a

problem that you cannot provide the basic needs in your life. It is about not having

enough financial resources, resulting in people's inability to exist or get the essentials

for a fulfilling life for themselves, their families, or whole communities.

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Rationale

The 3 literary works of Efren Reyes Abueg, such as “Saranggola”, “Mga agos sa

disyerto”, and “Dilim sa umaga” gives an insight into the economic inequality in the

Philippines. The researchers chose to discuss the common topic of poverty in these

three literary works because poverty is still one of the most prevalent social issues

located in the Philippines today. Hence, this research is proposed to spread awareness

of this issue as it affects a big portion of Filipinos. Poverty is not just about finances as it

also affects education, health, and future generations. By supplying significant

information surrounding the consequences and effects of poverty, the poor judgment

co-related to this would be lessened, controlling the rate of Filipinos experiencing

poverty.

Objectives of the Study

This study seeks to analyze, interpret and evaluate the three selected short

stories/literary pieces of Efren Reyes Abueg to fully understand his views and outlooks

toward life. More specifically, it attempts to answer the following questions:

1. What are the themes embedded in the following short stories of Efren Reyes Abueg?

1.1 Saranggola

1.2 Mga Agos sa Disyerto

1.3 Dilim sa Umaga

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2. How did the author develop his short stories/novel/poem in terms of the following

elements:

2.1 setting;

2.2 characters; and

2.3 symbolisms

3. What is the implication of Efren Reyes Abueg’s literary pieces to the Filipino people?

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Education

For most of these poor households, only about 60% of the family members have

an education up to elementary school. As a result of this, over 18.4 million Filipinos are

living in extreme poverty, surviving on an average budget of $1.25 per day. An average

Filipino family consists of six children, of which two of the children are likely to be

stunted due to malnutrition. According to medical experts, children who remain

malnourished in the first 1000 days of their lives do not fully develop the neural

connections in their brains. This can be a major obstacle, as it inhibits their ability to

reach their full potential, thereby damaging their chances of proper education (J, 2020).

Poor health can have a significant impact on a child's education in the Philippines.

Children who suffer from health problems such as malnutrition, infectious diseases, and

chronic illnesses may struggle to attend school regularly, concentrate in class, and

participate in extracurricular activities.

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Around 1.3 million primary and secondary school students were homeless in

2017. It should come as no surprise that homelessness has a huge impact on student

achievement. Students whose families are living within the shelter system, in hotels, out

of vehicles, or outdoors are under an enormous amount of stress and uncertainty. Once

a family is living below the poverty line, it can become progressively more difficult for

them to increase their income and break the cycle of poverty. Children who are born into

poverty typically lack access to all but the necessities. Poverty also affects a student’s

educational prospects. A student living in poverty will typically attend underfunded

schools with fewer resources for students who are struggling or showing signs of

learning disabilities (Ayers, 2022).

They might also have trouble getting their homework done, due to a lack of

resources at home, or a safe, quiet place to study. Their parents or guardians are likely

to have less time for school events and for helping with homework. All of these factors

can affect a student’s ability to be academically successful, attend college, and pursue

their preferred career path. This has a domino effect across generations. When poverty

limits someone’s educational options, they cannot earn enough money to help their

children have more opportunities. Then, the cycle repeats, and the U.S. public school

system continues to help perpetuate inequality.

Poverty can have a profound impact on a child's brain development, particularly

in areas such as cognition, language, and socio-emotional development. The stress of

living in poverty can cause chronic activation of the stress response system, which can

lead to changes in brain structure and function. According to Luby et al. (2013), the

finding that exposure to poverty in early childhood materially impacts brain development
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at school age further underscores the importance of attention to the well-established

deleterious effects of poverty on child development. Findings that these effects on the

hippocampus are mediated by caregiving and stressful life events suggest that attempts

to enhance early caregiving should be a focused public health target for prevention and

early intervention. Poverty was associated with smaller white and cortical gray matter

and hippocampal and amygdala volumes.

Despite the remarkable economic performance of the Philippines in recent years,

poverty remains a core policy issue. And with a relatively young population, the poverty

situation concerns largely children who are at the critical stages of their physical,

mental, and social development. This report provides a comprehensive profile of

children who are living in poverty through data collected from national surveys and

administrative records of government agencies. The estimations show that in 2009,

13.4 million or over a third of all children aged below 18 are living below the poverty line.

Both the incidence and magnitude of poor children are increasing through the years

(Tabuga, 2014). One major factor contributing to child poverty in the Philippines is the

lack of access to education. Many families living in poverty cannot afford to send their

children to school, and those who do attend may not receive adequate resources or

support. This can limit their future job prospects and perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

Poverty can have a profound impact on a child's life, affecting their physical,

emotional, and social well-being. Children living in poverty often experience a lack of

access to basic needs such as food, shelter, and healthcare, which can lead to

malnutrition, illness, and developmental delays. Based on Howlett et al. (2021), poverty

affects every area of a child’s life. Poverty brought with it exposure to violent crime, drug
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trafficking, substance abuse, and hopelessness. More than 40 million children are living

in the Philippines and over 12.5 million of those children, or about one in three, live in

poverty. Poverty means that many Filipino children do not get enough nutritious food, to

the extent that one in three has experienced stunting and close to one in five are

underweight because of malnutrition. Poverty also exposes children to higher rates of

abuse. More than 80 percent of Filipino children have experienced some sort of

violence, including physical, psychological, sexual, or online abuse.

Poverty and culture are the biggest hindrances in the fight against child labor in

our country. Children are being robbed of a period in their lives where they should

experience education and prepare for adult life while under the protection and care of

their parents. Many Filipino parents still rely on their children to work and bring them out

of hardships. Some are forced to work at an early age, in essence stripping them of

their formative stages for growth and education. Another factor to consider is the

parents’ knowledge of family planning. Parents with less education and knowledge of

birth control and family planning would have an average of four or more children. While

considered blessings, these children would eventually be a financial burden to the

parents (Staff & Staff, 2021). It is bad enough that ignorant parents are relying on their

kids to generate more income. A poor tradition in the country is taking away a child’s

life, freedom, and education to provide for the family’s financial needs.

For a country to combat poverty, education is essential. The Philippines’ lack of

adequate support for the poor’s right to an education will only make poverty worse. In

Breaking Barriers: Education and Poverty (2022), poverty and education are inextricably

linked. Not every person without an education lives in extreme poverty, but most adults
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living in poverty missed out on a basic education. Poor people stop going to school

because they have to work, which leaves them without the literacy and numeracy skills

needed to improve their situation. With little income and few options, their children are

also more likely to leave school, perpetuating a cycle of poverty that spans generations.

This is unfortunate because the most important way that education affects poverty is

that it can help to end it. Education directly correlates with many solutions to poverty:

economic growth, reduced income inequality, reduced infant and maternal deaths,

reduced stunting, reduced vulnerability to HIV and AIDS, and reduced violence at home

and in society.

Inequality begins early in life and typically is sustained over the life cycle, starting

with antenatal care and postnatal care which are disproportionately accessible to poorer

families and mothers with lower education. Which leads to markedly higher rates of

stunting, underweight, and wasting among poor families. Then children of poor

households are greatly disadvantaged as regards schooling that links to future work and

income opportunities. All of this leads to the intergenerational transmission of poverty

(Pernia, 2022). Despite being poor, Filipinos should be given the best quality of

treatment and education that can lower the percentage of poverty. They should have the

opportunity to show what can they attain by gaining this authority.

The impact of poverty on young children is significant and long-lasting. Poverty

is associated with substandard housing, hunger, homelessness, inadequate childcare,

unsafe neighborhoods, and under-resourced schools. In addition, low-income children

are at greater risk than higher-income children for a range of cognitive, emotional, and

health-related problems, including detrimental effects on executive functioning,

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below-average academic achievement, poor social-emotional functioning,

developmental delays, behavioral problems, asthma, inadequate nutrition, low birth

weight, and higher rates of pneumonia (Exploring the Mental Health Effects of Poverty,

Hunger, and Homelessness on Children and Teens, 2022). The child’s health and safety

should be one of the priorities of parents. Hence, this causes the child to gain an illness

that the body cannot maintain.

Health

Poverty is a potent factor in predicting health status because preventable illness

and death occur due to poverty and socio-economical situations. This study aims to

provide information on the correlation between poverty and self-rated health in

consideration of elements of health behaviors and family and friend support in the

Philippines. Results show that poverty has a direct negative influence on self-rated

health, while the presence of family and friend support decreased negative influence.

And through the analysis of mediated moderation model, similarly, poverty has also an

indirect negative effect on self-rated health through health behaviors and family and

friend support. Especially, regular exercise was found to be a major variable that

mediates poverty and self-rated health (Kim, 2016). This shows that people in poverty

become susceptible to illnesses and poor health. But having support from family and

friends and regular exercise can help improve your health.

Children that labor will not only get weaker due to lack of food, but they will also

be more susceptible to illnesses that could be fatal. Pneumonia is one of the major

causes of death in the nation for people of all ages. In The Borgen Project, (2019),
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hunger is one of the extreme effects of poverty in the Philippines. With little money to

buy food, Filipinos are having to survive on very limited food; even when food supplies

are stable, they are most accessible in other areas where people have enough income

to purchase the food. With such an unequal distribution of income, there is a low

demand for food supplies in less developed areas that are home to low-income

residents. The quality of food is also decreasing — rice used to be the main source of

food for Filipinos, but now it has largely been replaced with instant noodles, which are

cheaper but less nutritious. As a result, malnutrition has become a lot more common.

With poverty taking a toll on Filipinos, parents often can not make enough money to

support their families; children then have to be taken out of school to work in harsh

conditions. Statistics show that around 3.6 million children, from ages 5-17, are child

laborers in the Philippines. This is 15.9 percent of the entire population.

Pneumonia or pneumococcal disease is still one of the leading causes of death

among children under five years of age. The death toll approximately amounts to 2,400

children per day. It accounted for almost a million deaths in 2016, with most victims

below 2 years of age. Around 60% of childhood pneumonia deaths are concentrated in

10 countries that are considered developing. These developing countries, including the

Philippines, are beset with poverty-related factors such as lack of safe water and

sanitation, poor nutrition, prevalent air pollution, and inadequate access to health care

that aggravate pneumococcal disease (The Filipino Doctor, n.d.). It is concerning when

poverty exposes children to a deadly illness. Despite being sick, they get desperate due

to their low income. They go outside to work, which spreads the disease to more

people.
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People have been careless these days that even their newborn children and

baby have taken the illness inside their bodies. That even causes it to spread more in

the family until an epidemic starts. According to Esposito (2016), poverty’s harsh effects

on health start before babies are born and pile up throughout their adult lives. With

stressed-filled homes, shaky nutrition, toxic environments, and health-care gaps of

every kind, kids in very low-income families may never catch up when it comes to their

health. Below, experts spell out the strong link between poverty and illness and discuss

efforts to lift people to better health. Between 10 and nearly 15 years – that is the

difference in life expectancy between the poorest and richest people in the United

States, according to findings just published online in the medical journal JAMA. In the

huge, long-term study encompassing 1.4 billion Americans, researchers matched

income levels and mortality data between 1999 and 2014 to reach their conclusion. Low

income has long been linked to lower birth weight, which increases the risk of a host of

health and educational problems.

Poverty remains one of the most pressing problems facing the world; the

mechanisms through which poverty arises and perpetuates itself, however, are not well

understood. Here, we examine the evidence for the hypothesis that poverty may have

particular psychological consequences that can lead to economic behaviors that make it

difficult to escape poverty. The evidence indicates that poverty causes stress and

negative affective states which in turn may lead to short-sighted and risk-averse

decision-making, possibly by limiting attention and favoring habitual behaviors at the

expense of goal-directed ones. Together, these relationships may constitute a feedback

loop that contributes to the perpetuation of poverty. We conclude by pointing toward

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specific gaps in our knowledge and outlining poverty alleviation programs that this

mechanism suggests (Haushofer & Fehr, 2014). Poverty takes a great toll on the mind

because you worry too much about what you will eat, and how you will pay your debts.

Many things like this happen to someone who experienced poverty so much that it can

affect their psychological state.

High poverty and inequality are pervasive characteristics of the developing world;

however, they are not immutable features of these economies. There is convincing

evidence pointing to a robust decline in the levels of absolute income poverty over the

last decades and substantial progress in the reduction of deprivation in various

non-monetary dimensions—education, health, sanitation, and access to infrastructure.

Changes in income inequality have been much less clear, as relative inequality has

risen in some countries and fallen in others. The evidence suggests that on average the

developing countries are today somewhat more unequal than three decades ago

(Alvaredo & Gasparini, 2015). Despite being LGBT, persons with disabilities, and in

need of health care, should receive the same treatment. Where they are given the

chance to express themselves.

Poverty can lead someone to use drugs, but drug use can also lead someone

into poverty. Many middle-class and upper-class individuals have fallen into poverty

because of their drug use. Middle-class individuals can also slip into addiction-related

poverty by selling assets or dipping into retirement savings to buy drugs or alcohol.

Untreated addiction impairs judgment and critical thinking skills, which can lead

someone who is normally very financially responsible to burn through decades of

accumulated wealth in just a short time. And once in poverty, they face the same issues
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that others in poverty do and often are unable to escape. (Addiction and Poverty: Is

There a Correlation? 2020)

Family

Poverty can be a contributing factor to child abandonment, as parents may be

unable to provide for their children's basic needs and may feel that they have no other

choice but to abandon them. Poverty can make it difficult for parents to provide

adequate food, shelter, and healthcare for their children, and may force them to make

difficult choices about their children's well-being. According to Pofinc (2020), in the

Philippines, 6.1% of the population lives on less than $1.90 per day, 26% life on less

than $3.20 per day and 55.1% live on less than $5.50 per day. Widespread corruption in

both Filipino politics and business prevents any opportunities for social mobility and

growth. Power is concentrated among influential families and connected individuals,

offering the poor truly little chance of bettering themselves. As a result, there is a

never-ending cycle of poverty that leads to parents having to give up their children in

hopes they will have a better life somewhere else.

Over 5.6 million Filipino families are living in poverty as of 2022, according to

findings of the Listahanan 3 survey released by the Department of Social Welfare and

Development (DSWD). This is an increase from 5.2 million families who were identified

as poor during the Listahanan 2 survey, which was completed in 2015. In this third

iteration of the survey, 15,487,655 households were surveyed by DSWD’s enumerators.

The rise in the number of poor families was mainly due to job losses triggered by the

pandemic, DSWD information technology director Andrew Ambubuyog said during a

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press conference on Wednesday, November 23. In individual terms, this means two out

of five Filipinos are poor, or at least 30 million Filipinos are considered poor. This

number is about 27% of the 111 million total Philippine population (Macasero, 2022).

The pandemic had a significant influence on job losses, which increased poverty levels

in the nation. With the background of not having expertise in computer education,

qualifying for online employment is more difficult because it is already challenging to

acquire suitable technology.

Many families struggle to access nutritious and affordable food, resulting in food

poverty. The problem is particularly acute in areas with high levels of poverty, limited

infrastructure, and a lack of agricultural productivity. According to Bayudan-Dacuycuy

and Nguyen (2014), this paper uses panel data and two welfare indicators, namely per

capita expenditure, and per capita food expenditure, to determine the frequency that

households enter poverty and food poverty in the Philippines. Unlike other studies, this

paper attributes similar factors to explain transient and chronic poverty but finds that

these factors are more pronounced for the chronic case. Significant factors that

contribute to both chronic and transient poverty and food poverty are the household

heads’ low educational level, affiliation in economically unstable and risky occupations

such as those in the agriculture, fishery, and resource sectors and those who are

unskilled laborers, the lack of health insurance and high dependency burden. The paper

also finds that vulnerability to poverty and food poverty in the Philippines is high,

especially in the rural districts and areas with armed conflict.

More Filipinos are poorer today compared to 2018, according to the latest official

data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Citing its Family Income and
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Expenditure Survey, the PSA said the country has 19.99 million individuals living below

the poverty threshold. This represents 18.1 percent of the population. In 2018, there

were 17.67 million poor Filipinos. Meanwhile, the number of “food-poor” individuals

increased by 1.01 million. The PSA also reported a 7.8 percent unemployment rate,

which is equivalent to 3.71 million jobless Filipinos. The PSA report also confirmed the

glaring poverty gap between cities and rural areas. The Metro Manila region has the

lowest poverty incidence while the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim

Mindanao recorded the highest (The Diplomat, 2022). The number of jobless Filipinos

has increased over the years, highlighting the challenges faced by the country's labor

market. Despite the government's efforts to promote job creation and economic growth,

a significant portion of the population remains unemployed or underemployed.

Jobs

Poverty and international labor migration are deeply intertwined in the

Philippines. While international labor migration provides a way for many Filipinos to

escape poverty, it also presents significant challenges and risks. According to Garcia et

al. (2022), Global labor mobility and Overseas Filipino workers have been a topic of

interest due to their rapid growth and their apparent links with development goals.

Among the 197 countries in the world, the Philippines has one of the highest rates of

migration. In this paper, the researchers have examined the statistical relationship

between migration and poverty through a study, using panel data from the years 2006,

2008, 2012, 2015, and 2018 in the Philippines. The study aimed to determine whether

remittances reduce poverty as Overseas Filipino Workers continue to increase yearly.

The results showed that there is a relationship amongst poverty, international labor
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migration, and remittances via the fixed panel data done but show a low significance

level among the said variables. Thus, there is a relationship within the variables but a

low significance level to poverty in the Philippines.

Unemployment greatly affects not only the financial problems of the citizens but

also affects the health of the children who cannot eat properly. Then, the inflation rate

happens here in the Philippines which will cost more to them. According to Davis

(2014), poverty is considered largely involuntary and mainly caused by unemployment.

Marxian/radical views see the role of class and group discrimination, which are largely

political issues, as central to poverty. These theories assign a central role to the state in

its intervention/regulation of markets. Prominent examples of anti-poverty proposals in

this vein include minimum wages and anti-discriminatory laws. Social exclusion and

social capital theories recognize the role of social as well as economic factors in

explaining poverty, giving them a similar weight. They offer a helpful contribution to

understanding not only what the precursors of poverty are but also what underlies its

persistence over time.

Unemployment has devastating financial and psychological consequences for

individuals, families, and communities. Second, reemployment is challenging to acquire

but crucial to recovering from unemployment and escaping poverty. Third, systemic and

societal factors, such as employment bias and gaps in employment law, shape and

constrain employment processes for individuals and organizations. Fourth, the nature of

employment is changing because of technological advances, growth in the contingent

labor force, and globalized business relationships that introduce new concerns for

underemployment, unemployment, and reemployment processes for individuals. We

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conclude by charting important directions for future research, describing promising

interventions for practitioners, and summarizing opportunities for psychologists to apply

their knowledge and expertise to support policies that can alleviate poverty (Thompson

and Dahling, 2019)—supporting the financial needs of each citizen. Also, acquire more

jobs for them to sustain.

Environment

According to Ant (n.d.), the Philippines struggles with high population growth and

high levels of inequality, affecting the welfare of millions. The country remains trapped in

a debt cycle where international loan repayments limit the ability of the government to

make investments in its own human and physical capital. Critical public services such

as health and education are severely underfunded. Higher food and energy prices,

particularly the cost of rice, also hurt the poor disproportionately. This cycle is being

exacerbated by climate change and the increasing strength and frequency of natural

disasters. An average of 20 typhoons or major storms hit the Philippines every year.

The challenge facing the Philippines is how to transform their recent strong growth into

more inclusive growth, to reduce this chronic poverty while continuing to deal with the

existing high level of daily suffering.

It might be said that the Philippines’ geographical issue, which exposes the

country to numerous natural disasters, is also one of the causes of the country’s

continued poverty. Because Filipino farmers lack the assistance they require when

disasters occur, it is a concern when hurricanes harm agriculture. According to Thelwell

(2020), according to the World Bank’s October 2019 report, the Philippines is expected
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to sustain its progress in poverty reduction. The Philippines’ GDP growth was roughly

5.8% in 2019 and is expected to reach 6.2% by 2021. Many believe this growth is tied to

transportation infrastructure among the Philippine islands. According to the 2013

Philippines Human Development Report, economic integration will be key to creating

sustainable growth throughout all of the Philippine islands and reducing poverty in rural

areas. The main production sectors in the Philippines are electronics assembly,

garments, footwear, pharmaceuticals, food processing, petroleum refining, and fishing.

Agriculture is also a significant sector; however, self-employed farmers are the most

susceptible to geographic hardships from natural disasters. Additionally, many farmers

struggle due to a lack of insurance, inadequate post-harvest facilities, inadequate

irrigation techniques, and limited access to the market as a result of poor transportation

services.

Because of hunger, crimes are increasing. Crime rates are getting higher due to

starvation or the need for money to pay a debt or to help a family. According to Quezon

(2022), the stampede back to school and the accelerating pace of people reporting back

to their offices provide more than ample opportunity for petty crime to take place. And

there is an ever-increasing incentive for crime: hunger. Social Weather Stations (SWS)

reported in its most recent self-rated poverty numbers that 48 percent of Filipino families

feel poor: but in truth, the percentage should be far larger. Marit Stinus-Cabugon zeroed

in on a finding of SWS to explain why: while the self-rated poverty threshold is “the

minimum monthly budget self-rated poor families say they need for home expenses in

order not to consider themselves poor,” that threshold “has remained sluggish [moving

slowly or not at all for several years despite considerable inflation. This indicates that
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poor families have been lowering their living standards, i.e., belt-tightening.” Even as

things cost more, people are making do with less.

Poor people are more often affected by natural hazards because they often

have to settle in risky areas, for two major reasons. First, at-risk areas may be more

attractive when they offer economic opportunities, public services or direct amenities,

and higher productivity and incomes. For example, households in regularly flooded

areas of Mumbai report that they are aware of the flood risks but accept them because

of the opportunities offered by the area such as access to jobs, schools, healthcare

facilities, and social networks. Globally, there has been a trend toward increased

risk-taking: from 1970 to 2010 the world population grew by 87%, while the population in

flood plains increased by 114% and in cyclone-prone coastlines by 192%. Risky areas

thus attract all kinds of populations, including poor people (Hallegatte, S. et al., 2020).

They are affected by a great type of natural disaster like landslides. Just like the

eruption of Taal Volcano which affects the livestock of people living there.

Geography mainly focuses on the spatial distribution, evolution mechanism, and

regional characteristics of geographical elements of the land surface. The human-land

relationship is the core of geography research. From the perspective of the human-land

relationship areal system, regional poverty is an external manifestation of man-land

relation incompatibility in specific areas. Academia has recognized the importance of

the study of the spatial dynamics of poverty from the perspective of geography for a

long time. A large number of models and methods have been used to identify the

geographical distribution, differentiation mechanism, and leading factors of poverty,

such as spatial analysis, geographically weighted regression, multidimensional poverty

 23

index, human cartographic approach, BP neural network model, computable

general-equilibrium model, an econometric model. Among them, the multidimensional

poverty index is the most commonly used method for identifying poverty-stricken areas,

which has been used in global or regional poverty research (Zhou & Liu, 2019). Which

should be given the proper aspect of splitting the animes, plants, and lands. This can

also affect the lives of other people in the region that rely on the land for their needs.

Preserving the economy is one of the priorities of our locals. On the other hand,

stabling our political relations and uses its funds for the people needing it. According to

Cobbinah et al. (2013), the term poverty has been described in different ways

throughout the world due to its multidimensional nature. Whereas some countries and

geographical regions view poverty as deprivation, others are concerned with social

exclusion and inequality in resource distribution. Despite the differences in poverty

interpretations, many countries in the developing world have adopted universal poverty

reduction approaches over the years. This paper analyzes the conceptual

underpinnings of poverty focusing on its evolution, the multi-dimensional definitions, and

poverty reduction efforts implemented over the past 50 years. Using secondary data

analysis, the paper reveals that universal approaches to poverty reduction have yielded

few successes, and recommends that poverty should be viewed as a global

phenomenon but tackled at the local level using local indicators. To achieve sustainable

development, developing countries should focus on meeting the basic needs of their

inhabitants and be committed to ensuring a stable political and economic environment.

Existing access to justice issues includes the inability to solve everyday legal

problems, a lack of access to legal information, and the accumulation of social and
 24

economic costs of unresolved legal problems. All of those disproportionately impact

marginalized and vulnerable groups in society. The report suggests that poverty and

criminality are mutually reinforcing, as poverty itself is indirectly criminalized in a variety

of ways by the justice system, and the effects of being in contact with the justice system

can exacerbate poverty. Encountering the criminal justice system as either a victim or

perpetrator of crime can be detrimental, especially for members of marginalized or

vulnerable groups. This is of particular concern for Indigenous communities already

faced with unique systemic challenges in dealing with the criminal justice system

(Marcella, 2022). Gaining the right justice is one of the most important things, especially

for those who are financially short. Giving them the right thing they need can help them

appreciate the true sense of our justice system.

METHOD

Research Design

The researchers of this study opt to follow a qualitative study approach.

According to Bhandari (2023), qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing

non-numerical data like text, video, and audio for the readers to understand concepts,

opinions, or experiences. It can be used to gather in-depth insights into a problem or

generate new ideas for research. Hence, the qualitative method is the most suitable

approach for this research.

The thematic analysis will be used for this study to clearly and easily understand

the readers about poverty in Efren Abueg’s works. As stated by H (2023), thematic

analysis is a qualitative data analysis method that involves reading through a data set,
 25

such as transcripts from in-depth interviews or focus groups, and identifying patterns in

meaning across the data to derive themes. The thematic analysis involves an active

process of reflexivity, where a researcher’s subjective experience plays a central role in

meaning-making from data. Thus, this research design is relevant to the study because

it discusses the experiences, and common problems of the Filipinos and why they are

experiencing poverty.

Analysis

The information from the literary works was gathered by reading the selected

literary works thoroughly and taking notes on the key themes and motifs that emerge.

By reading the selected literary works, the researchers could identify and analyze the

themes and patterns that will emerge from his works. By conducting a thematic analysis

of Efren Abueg's writings, we can gain a deeper understanding of these themes and

their implications for Philippine culture and society.

Thematic analysis is a method of analyzing qualitative data, such as interviews,

focus groups, or open-ended survey responses, to identify patterns or themes within the

data. It involves a process of coding the data, which means identifying and categorizing

different concepts or ideas that are present in the data. The first step in conducting a

thematic analysis is to familiarize oneself with the data and make initial observations.

This is followed by identifying and generating initial codes, which are labels or tags that

capture the essence of the data. These codes are then organized into broader

categories or themes based on their similarities and differences. The next step

involves reviewing and refining the themes, as well as exploring relationships between
 26

themes. This process may involve revisiting the data to check for accuracy and

completeness and to make sure that the themes are grounded in the data. Finally, the

researcher should report their findings, which typically involves providing a detailed

description of the themes and making connections to the broader research question or

context.
 27

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