Food, health and education

President BBM should be worried by now about his failure to deliver the most important basic needs of food, health and education. Given limited resources, a good part of which is lost in corruption-related pork funds, BBM must focus on significant deliverables in the basics as his administration reaches its midpoint this year.

Government exists on the basis of a social compact. Failure violates this reason for being. What good is a government that consistently fails the Filipino people in providing essentials like food, health services and education?

SWS released a survey last week indicating that food, health and education together with creating more job opportunities are the top issues people are concerned about.

The PSA announced that the full-year 2024 GDP growth rate was 5.6 percent, missing the government’s own target of a minimum six percent. The economic managers are quick to point out that at least we are the third fastest growing economy in the region.

That’s not even a good consuelo-de-bobo. The real story behind that number tells us how our economy has shrunk since the pandemic. UP economist JC Punongbayan explains it this way:

“The latest economic figures tell us that we’re now on a permanently lower growth trajectory. Our national income now is a lot lower than what it could’ve been, and this trend seems to be robust. We’re nowhere near going back to the old trajectory. The pandemic permanently scarred the Phl economy. Imagine a car that veered off-course and hasn’t found its way back to the main road for four years straight. Sad, because other countries like Vietnam and Singapore have long gone back on track.”

According to Dr. Punongbayan, “to get back to the pre-pandemic track by 2028, the end of Marcos’ term, we need 11.4 percent growth annually from 2025 to 2028! Really quite impossible.”

Impossible, given the way the leadership has neglected the issues that count and allowed its greedy political allies to institutionalize plunder in the National Budget.

The worst part of our GDP story is the shameful agriculture output dwindling to an eight-year low in 2024, falling by 2.2 percent to P1.725 trillion. PSA data showed that the combined value was the lowest since the P1.722 trillion recorded in 2016 and was also 2.2 percent lower than 2023’s P1.76 trillion. PSA data also showed that the rate of decline in the value of the agriculture and fisheries production last year was the steepest since 2000 when the time series began.

OK, they have an excuse… unfavorable weather conditions curbed production nationwide. It isn’t as if El Niño is unexpected. By this time, our government should have put in place measures that will mitigate the effects of this regular weather phenomenon. Same with typhoons.

The value of livestock production declined by 4.25 percent year-on-year, blamed as usual on the African swine fever. How many years has this been the problem?

As for fisheries output value, it fell by 1.1 percent, according to the PSA, forcing us to import even galunggong. So embarrassing for a country that is surrounded by seas.

The really terrible thing is that government measures to reduce the retail price of rice failed because there was no political will to control the greedy agricultural cartels. The reduction in tariff for imported rice and the lower world prices were not passed on to the consumers. The government helplessly watched the bloated profits of the rice cartel happen.

The solution of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. is to declare a food security emergency to address the spiking retail prices of rice.  BBM said this declaration is needed for the market to work properly. If all that declaration will do is allow NFA to sell its rice stocks at a loss, success is likely limited. Sending cartel operators to jail is the only way BBM can see results.

As for health, Congress with the approval of Malacañang gave PhilHealth zero budget for 2025. They claim there is enough money in PhilHealth’s coffers to even provide for expanded benefits. But that’s just a praise release. That’s not being felt on the ground. Indeed, hospitals have been complaining that their collectibles from PhilHealth continue to rise.

Here is how a Jesuit priest working at PGH describes in a Facebook post, how bad it is in a premier government hospital:

“PGH OutPatient Department at 4:30- 5:00 a.m.: A reflection of our country’s healthcare system. Sick people, many are on wheelchairs and some on stretcher beds are crowding near the entrance hoping to get earlier slots, and still, many are lining up along Padre Faura Street hoping to get inside when the door is opened. With zero additional budget for PhilHealth for 2025, and using the P90 billion PhilHealth savings to fund corruption in pork barrel projects, instead of expanding health programs to include out-patients, what can we expect for this year 2025?”

Where are the regional specialty hospitals BBM promised so people don’t have the added expense of going to NCR to avail of the services of the Heart Center, Kidney Center, Lung Center and other government hospitals? BBM should build on the accomplishments of his mother by getting those regional hospitals up.

As for education, Secretary Sonny Angara and the EDCOM are moving as fast as they can to improve outcomes. But the damage from years of neglect and corruption will take years for any meaningful improvement to be realized. In other words, we have lost generations of Filipinos who were badly educated by our public schools. With little marketable skills, they will be dependent on ayudas from corrupt politicians for the rest of their lives.

But are our officials even worried they are failing our people in food, health and education to stop the grand stealing of our taxes and borrowed money to fund their pork barrel greed? Not by the way they crafted the 2025 budget.

Boo Chanco’s email address is bchanco@gmail.com. Follow him on X, @boochanco