Looking down on Baseco Compound where young boys pick through refuse for recyclables.<br />
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While the extreme poverty rate in the region dropped significantly between 2005 and 2008, the Philippines' poverty rate remained largely unchanged.  In fact, poverty has intensified on the poor.  According to the National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) in 2006, 28.8% of families lived on less than US$1.25/ day.  By 2012, 27.9 % of Filipinos were living below the poverty line.  <br />
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What what changed was the income per family needed to escape extreme poverty.  While in 2006, a family would need to earn US$39.09 / month to escape extreme poverty, that figure rose in the most recent NSCB survey to US$ 181.89/month, clear showing how inflation is weighing heaviest upon that society's poor.