Back on Monday, President Rodrigo Duterte said in his televised speech that the funds allotted to be given to the poorest of the poor is running low. In fact, the P200 billion+ budget that’s for the Social Amelioration Program by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) aren’t even enough for the demographic of the poor.
In response to that, Cavite Governor Jonvic Remulla said that the Philippine government shouldn’t only be thinking about the poor. In addition, he said that the government should entertain the cries of the middle class citizens too.
Read: President Duterte Promises to Help the Middle Class, Too
They need the government’s help, too
Through the letter he sent to our dearest President, Governor Remulla said that middle class families are also affected. Though they have houses and they have money for food, these people rely on their monthly salaries and these are the people that have loans either from the government or from private lending institutions.
To this, Karlo Nograles, Cabinet Secretary said that they’re currently in the works of studying this suggestion.
Pinag-aaralan pa namin.”
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In Translation: We’re still studying it [the feasibility of assisting the middle class too]
But who are the middle class? How are they classified?
The question on who are the middle class families tend to be on the relative side of the spectrum. Based on a research don by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), families that have five (5) members or more earning a household monthly income of P20,000.00 up to P115,000.00 are thought to be part of the middle class.
The middle class are classified based on:
- Their overall household income
- How many they are in the household
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These two (2) things are the primary source of how people are classified on whether they are poor or if they’re part of the middle.
To clarify it further, here is a graph of how and where the classifications of social standing lie.
Take note: This is relative because it would still be depending on the number of people in a household. So a family could be doing well but because they have more than five (5) people in the household, they’re at the lower brackets. Nevertheless, here’s the chart of who are the middle class people and families.
Classification Chart
Classification | Monthly Income | Classification Definition | Class Size |
Poor | Their salaries are less than P7,890 every month | Their income per capita is a lot less than the offical poverty limit | About 4.2 million people |
Low Income (Not Poor; In Between Poor and Lower Middle Class) | Salaries are between P7,890 to P15,780 every month | Their income per capita is between the poverty line and twice the poverty line | About 7.1 |
Lower Middle Class | In between P15,780 to P31,650 every month | Their income per capita is between twice the poverty line and four times the poverty line | About 5.8 million people |
Middle Class | Between P31,650 to P78,900 every month | Their income per capita is between four times the poverty line and ten times the poverty line | Around |
Upper Middle Class | Between P78,900 to P118,350 every month | Their income per capita is between ten times the poverty line and fifteen times the poverty line | Around 470K people |
Upper Income (Not Rich: In Between Middle Class and Rich) | Between P118,350 to P157,800 every month | Their income per capita is between fifteen times the poverty line and twenty times the poverty line | Around |
Rich | Greater than or equal to P157,800 every month | Their income per capita is at least twenty times the poverty line | About |
As you can see, the middle class isn’t actually the ones that are “not earning.” In fact, they have a threshold of their salaries at around P78K per month! And quite frankly, that’s more to what people were expecting.
However, it’s still not as high as those who are in the upper middle class.
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So if you’re still stuck at the question of who are the middle class, here’s the answer. These are conditional but now you know the idea of it.
Based on this, what do you think about Governor Jonvic Remulla’s letter to the President about helping the middle class in the country? Would it be nice to say the least that they really are in need of such help, too? Or should the government focus on the poorest of the poor instead?
Not to mention, the middle class are the taxpayers so they definitely should be given credit too. But what about you? What’s your take on this thought? Should they be given the same assistance that are given to the poorest of the poor? Or should they be given whatever the government can give because they need to be supporting the poor first?
Source: Rappler PH
In this time of crisis.. For me as a member of middle class bracket, government should concentrate helping on poor and lower middle class..
Perhaps waiving the collection of withholding tax for the period of ECQ will be of great help for the middle class bracket.
I belong to the poor.. i am a private school teacher earning 7,500 monthly. We did not received any subsidy from the gov’t.
No Dole, since Dole run out of budget.
No Sap, because they only choose those people whom they know.
NO WORK,NO SALARY too..😭😭😭