No alibis please for child poverty

VP Jojo Binay is no spare tire like his predecessors. Not only does he spark news, but also splits public opinion. He saddens or he gladdens people, depending on their political side. That’s what happened Tuesday night, when he renewed ties with P-Noy after a momentary breakaway.

Earlier that day Binay had scored the admin for “persecuting” both him and his foe ex-President Gloria M. Arroyo. So pleased were GMA loyalists as he assailed Justice Sec. Leila de Lima. For them de Lima is the villainess who jailed GMA for no-bail plunder; for him she is the pesky snoop of his alleged hidden wealth.

Binay also twitted three erring admin stalwarts, to the delight of other P-Noy haters. He purported that de Lima is protecting PNP chief Alan Purisima and Budget Sec. Butch Abad. This is although, like him, the first has been exposed of non-declaring a multi-hectare farm, while the second is the illegal dispenser of P155 billion compared to his alleged P1.3-billion kickback on a car park built during his Makati mayoralty. Is de Lima operating for Interior Sec. Mar Roxas, his rival for VP in 2010, Binay asked?

The press instantly reported open war in the admin between Binay’s pros and antis. Yet that night, after a three-hour heart-to-heart on P-Noy’s behest, it was clear that Binay was to stay in the Cabinet — with de Lima, Abad, and Roxas. So disappointed were Binay’s earlier cheerers, that they jeered him about contrasting himself with Purisima. For, the latter had gone to the Senate to be grilled about his supposed wrongs, and toured reporters to his controversial farm. Yet Binay continues to evade the chamber’s invitations to give his side on the alleged kickback and secret wealth.

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Expect Malacañang to dismiss the findings of the state think tank, Philippine Institute for Development Studies. That is, one in every three Filipino children lives in abject poverty. It’s easy to second-guess the Palace spokesmen’s alibi: that the PIDS figures are old, and so discount the admin’s dazzling economic gains. That’s what they always say.

True, the study by PIDS senior fellow Dr. Celia Reyes culls mainly from a national survey in 2009, the last with a large respondents’ pool. But her observations match that of regional data in 2011.

The child poverty rate can only be worsening. For, there is no sign of abatement. In fact it tallies with the recent report of the National Economic and Development Authority — suppressed by Malacañang — that overall poverty has stayed for the past 30 years, at 26-27 percent.

Some of the PIDS findings:

• 13.4 million children lived penurious in 2009. They were 36 percent, over one-third, of children aged below 18 then. Being poor, they suffered deprivations of food, shelter, health, and education.

• Four million had no home toilet; the same number had no access to safe water. Another 260,000 kids did not have decent shelter.

• 1.4 million children lived in slums, 6.5 million did not have home electricity, and 3.4 million had no means of information.

• National surveys and administrative records show a worsening. Ten million children face at least two severe overlapping deprivations of basic amenities, while 750,000 simultaneously face five.

• Education-wise, poor children had high dropout rates, and survivors showed low achievement levels. In the last decade the graduation rate from elementary or high school hardly improved.

• In 2011, 5.5 million children were forced to work to augment family incomes. They had to skip school, so weakened their chances for gainful work.

• Child poverty was worse in rural areas, where three in four poor children live. Four in five are so destitute they have no safe water and sanitary toilets.

• Zamboanga Peninsula, Eastern Visayas, and the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao were deemed worst, so need priority.

The study rued that child poverty will swell with the population, non-inclusive economics, and natural calamities.

Stiff opposition has met the Reproductive Health Law. Economic growth has benefited only the rich, and has not trickled down to the poor and the rural areas. The government’s conditional cash transfer, slated for 15 years for full effect, barely has begun with 2.3 million needy families. Government has been slow to rebuild communities ravaged by typhoon, tsunami, landslide, flood, and volcanic eruption — not to forget man-made displacements like Moro rebellion in Zamboanga City, and clan wars.

So expect to see more street children, garbage scavengers, young pregnancies, juvenile delinquents, and slum dogs.

The full study may be downloaded from: http://dirp4.pids.gov.ph/webportal/CDN/PUBLICATIONS/pidsdps1433.pdf

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Overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) continue to react to my piece of Oct. 6 about the social cost of separated families and broken marriages. This email is from social researcher Kristobelle Anne Ong:

“I have published a thesis, “Mediated mothering: A case study of the utilization of media and family communication among OFW-mothers in Taiwan Higher Ground Community Church.” It focused on a Taiwan church that ministers solely to OFWs in its district.

“In the study I found that all the OFW-mothers used modern means of communication, like Skype, video calls, mobile phone apps, Facebook, and other social media to talk to and see their children. They claimed and justified that through these they even are able to supervise their children’s homework, help in school projects, guide them, and check on their health.

“Agreeing with your article, however, telecommunicating can only do so much in connecting OFW-mothers with children. The absence of the mothers’ role (nurturing, guidance, teaching, disciplining) in the family can never be substituted for any amount of money or materials they send home. No other member of the family, not even the grandmother, can replace motherhood.

“Since the ‘70s OFWs have been leaving families for basic needs and quality education — at the expense of quality time for the children. If only state agencies and NGOs can think of alternative livelihoods for OFW-mothers, and programs to stabilize families.”

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