# ₱96 a Day and Not "Poor": Prices at 60% of Tokyo, a Weak Peso, and the Government's Broken Poverty Line > The Philippines' poverty line is about ₱96 per person per day, while prices have climbed to about 60% of Tokyo's. Official poverty is a record-low 9.7%, yet 55% of families call themselves poor. I set the line beside the minimum wage, lawmakers' pay, and the flood control scandal. - Published: 2026-10-30 - URL: https://abalol.xyz/en/posts/ph-poverty-line/ - Language: en - Tags: philippines, life, economy, poverty, politics - Author: Tomohiro Owada - Site: Tomo's Diary (https://abalol.xyz/llms.txt) --- I'm an AI engineer living in Las Piñas, in the Philippines. My income is in Japanese yen, and my spending is in pesos. Earning in yen and spending in pesos shows me this country's prices up close. I can't call it a "cheap country" anymore. ## Manila's prices are about 60% of Tokyo's [Numbeo](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_current.jsp) (a site that collects world prices from user submissions) puts Manila's cost of living at 63% of Tokyo's in October 2026. That excludes rent. Groceries are at 65%, restaurants at 69%, and rent at 59%. It's not half price. It's about 60%. The World Bank's 2025 data says the same: the national price level is about 51% of Japan's. Cheaper, but not absurdly cheap. ![Manila compared with Tokyo on prices and purchasing power](https://abalol.xyz/images/posts/ph-poverty-line/compare-tokyo-manila-en.png) But Numbeo runs on user submissions, so treat it as a guide. Manila had 76 contributors in the past 12 months. The idea of "a cheap country where your money goes far" is out of date, I think. ## A weak peso, and a heavier life The peso has weakened too. A dollar cost ₱57.5 on average in 2025. Today it's ₱63.8. In the [Big Mac Index](https://github.com/TheEconomist/big-mac-data) (which compares currencies by the price of the same burger) for July 2026, the peso was cheaper than the yen. Japan's Big Mac was ¥500. The Philippines' was ₱169 (about ¥420). In dollars, that's $3.08 against $2.74. Yet life hasn't gotten lighter. In September, [inflation](https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/1004884/inflation-snaps-four-month-easing-accelerates-to-7-2-in-september-2026/story/) was [2.1% in Japan](https://www.stat.go.jp/data/cpi/sokuhou/tsuki/pdf/zenkoku.pdf) and 7.2% in the Philippines. Transport rose 14.6%, and housing and utilities 8.4%. Food went up 6.7%. Even with prices at 60%, what a local income buys is only about 27% of Tokyo's. I earn in yen, so I'm outside that. ## ₱96 a day and "not poor" So how does the government measure poverty? The PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) set the [2025 poverty line](https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/money/economy/999468/is-your-family-earning-below-p14-634-a-month-here-s-what-psa-says-about-poverty-line/story/) at ₱14,634 a month for a family of five. That's about ₱96 per person per day. It doesn't even buy one Big Mac at ₱169. By that measure, poverty fell to a record-low 9.7% (6.4% for families). The number of poor people dropped from 17.5 million in 2023 to 11 million in 2025. But people feel the opposite. In September 2026, the pollster [SWS](https://sws.org.ph/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/pr20261013-SWR-2026-III-Self-Rated-Poverty-and-Food-Poverty-media-release.pdf) found that 55% of families call themselves poor. [OCTA](https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/999186/octa-self-rated-poverty-hunger-rise-in-q2-2026/story/), another pollster, found 39% in July. 44% of families rate their food as poor, and 22.6% went hungry. The think tank [IBON](https://www.ibon.org/en/official-poverty-figures-discount-millions-of-poor-filipinos/) calls the line "unrealistic." ![Poverty line, minimum wage, and what people say](https://abalol.xyz/images/posts/ph-poverty-line/poverty-line-vs-wage-en.png) Set it beside the minimum wage and the line looks very low. Since September 26, the Metro Manila [minimum wage](https://nwpc.dole.gov.ph/ncr/) is ₱755 a day (about ¥1,870). That's about ₱94 an hour. One hour of work reaches one person's daily poverty line. One minimum-wage earner working 26 days makes ₱19,630. On paper, that alone puts a family of five above the poverty line. ## The people who hold the ruler By law, the economic planning department (DEPDev) sets this poverty line through the PSA. Members of Congress sit on that side of the government, and their [basic pay](https://rollingstonephilippines.com/state-of-affairs/philippine-politics/how-much-is-senators-salary/) starts at ₱293,191 a month. That's 20 poverty-line families' worth, and about 15 times a minimum-wage earner's monthly pay. It excludes allowances. Their declared wealth is on another scale too. The 24 senators' [SALNs](https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/964171/saln-senators-all-24/story/) (Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth) show net worth from ₱18.84 million at the lowest to ₱1.26 billion at the highest. ![Lawmakers' basic pay and the poverty line](https://abalol.xyz/images/posts/ph-poverty-line/salary-vs-poverty-en.png) In that country, a flood control scandal broke in 2025. It began with deadly monsoon floods. On September 21, a huge protest, the ["Trillion Peso March,"](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2025/09/21/2474418/impyerno-students-retirees-thousands-rage-ghost-projects-luneta-rally) took place in Manila. Per the city government, at least 49,000 people gathered at Rizal Park alone. Flood control spending since 2022 comes to ₱545 billion. Ghost projects and substandard work have been flagged within it. President Marcos said about ₱100 billion of it went to just 15 contractors. The Department of Finance [estimated the economic loss](https://bworldonline.com/top-stories/2025/09/03/695380/economic-losses-from-anomalous-flood-control-projects-likely-hit-up-to-p119-billion-recto-says/) at up to ₱118.5 billion. The economic planning department (DEPDev) said the stalled public works [cut 2025 growth by about 1.1 points](https://filipinotimes.net/latest-news/2026/01/30/flood-control-scandal-slowed-2025-growth-depdev-says/). The President set up the [Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI)](https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/philippines-forms-independent-body-probe-anomalies-infrastructure-projects-2025-09-11/) to investigate. It wrapped up in March 2026. The Ombudsman (the government's anti-corruption prosecutor) had [filed 39 cases](https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2322447/ombudsman-report-39-flood-mess-cases-filed) by October 2026. The 52 accused include senators and House members. One sitting senator is [charged](https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2026/09/03/2553752/jinggoy-estrada-enters-not-guilty-plea-flood-control-related-plunder-graft-charges) over alleged kickbacks of ₱573.75 million. He denies the allegations. According to the charge sheet, a former House Speaker and one other person allegedly received at least ₱7.44 billion in kickbacks. No one has been convicted. In a country that counts ₱96 a day as "not poor," a lawmaker's basic pay starts at ₱293,191 a month. What's off isn't the scale's markings. It's the sense of money in the hands that hold the ruler, I think.