Negros Occidental is a close second

Based on records from the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC), Antique has the highest poverty incidence rate in the Western Visayas. NAPC Secretary Noel Felongco recently presented data to the media that showed, in the first semester of 2018, the poverty incidence rate in the province was 24.8 percent.
Negros Occidental was a close second at 24.3 percent.
He believes the peace and order situation is a major factor and blamed “the presence of communist insurgents” for why farmers are poor.
However, he cited a Philippine Statistics Authority report from earlier in the year that showed the poverty incidence rate dropped overall from 31.4 percent in the first half of 2015 to 21.2 percent in the same period of 2018.
The NAPC official was in Valladolid recently to sign a memorandum of agreement with Mayor Enrique Miravalles wherein the NAPC would provide P3 million for necessary administrative and logistic assistance for the development of an integrated and community-based agricultural production and processing facility./DGB, WDJ