BONGAO, Tawi-Tawi – Tawi-Tawi Gov. Sadikul Sahali has organized a Special Task Force tasked to draft the Tawi-Tawi Anti-Poverty Agenda after he noted with seriousness, the National Statistical Coordinating

Board’s (NSCB’s) report on the Poverty Situation of the Philippine Provinces naming Tawi-Tawi as the “poorest province” in the country today.

Sahali said he is not satisfied with the findings of the NCSB in naming his province as the poorest province in the country today.

“I sadly imagined that Tawi-Tawi, being the poorest province in the Philippines today, as according to the ranking of the National Statistical Coordinating Board or NCSB,” he said.

He said most provincial and municipal government officials including line agencies of the government stationed in Tawi-Tawi also disagree with the NSCB report.

The high spirit, full attention and deep meaning that we have given during the 36th founding anniversary of the province dubbed “Kamahardikaan Tawi-Tawi” were strong proofs to the contrary that “we are the poorest, Sahali pointed out.

The peace, good governance and abundant resources with which we in Tawi-Tawi are blessed with are solid proofs to the contrary that we are the poorest, Sahali added.

“Nevertheless, we have to note with seriousness the NSCB report on the Poverty Situation of the Philippine Provinces and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the chief of the province said.

“For this purpose, I created a Special Task Force composed of different government agencies and non-government organizations to come up with a so-called Tawi-Tawi Anti-Poverty Agenda,” the governor told reporters.

The provincial government will utilize whatever internal resources available at our disposal, to find our rightful place among the provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, in particular, and the country, in general, he added.

“The state of our province is good. Our determination is steadfast,” the governor said.

As he claimed that the province has a big base of underground informal economy and it does not lend to statistical calculation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), “which is one of the basis for the NSCB estimate that we wished to prove erratic.”

The incomes and earnings of numerous unregistered micro entrepreneurs, barter traders, seaweed farmers, and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and migrant workers are not included in the computation of per capita income of Tawi-Tawians, he lamented.

“Yet, we may still register with NSCB as having low per capita income, as compared with other local government units. The NSCB report, however, does not reflect the true picture of Tawi-Tawi as a fast progressing province,” he said.