Millions of Filipinos still very poor

Extreme poverty: Families living in concrete pipes used as makeshift dwellings along a street in Manila. — AFP

POVERTY remains the one area that overshadows the economic achievements of the Aquino administration.

At the end of a six-year term highlighted by enviable economic growths that began in 2010, more than 26 million Filipinos remain poor. And nearly half or more than 12 million of them live in extreme poverty and without the means to feed themselves.