Despite the Philippines’ reclassification as an upper-middle-income economy in July 2026, its poverty threshold remains aligned with lower-middle-income standards. The country’s threshold is USD 4.08 per person per day, which is below the World Bank’s poverty lines of USD 4.20 for lower-middle-income countries and USD 8.30 for upper-middle-income countries. This Policy Note emphasizes that the country’s official threshold lags behind those of its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) neighbors. Based on the average national poverty line of the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Viet Nam, the ASEAN-4 benchmark exceeds the country’s threshold by about 40 percent. Under this benchmark, the Philippines’ 2023 poverty incidence doubles from 15.5 percent to 34.9 percent, adding 21.9 million people to the poverty count. Meanwhile, closing just half of the gap increases the poverty incidence to 25.2 percent, adding approximately 11.0 million people. Thus, the Philippine Statistics Authority is advised to focus on food consumption rather than income, apply methods that account for within-household inequality, and revert to its former release practices.