Imelda dreams big, vows to raise P430 billion for poor Pinoys

MANILA, Philippines - As in the old days when she was first lady, Imelda Romualdez-Marcos dreams of grandiose projects.

Marcos, now a congresswoman representing Ilocos Norte’s second district, has filed Bill 3252, which aims to raise as much as $10 billion (more than P430 billion) for projects intended for poor Filipinos.

“We must not give the poor fish, we must teach them how to fish,” she said in filing the bill.

“We have natural and financial potentials, which when utilized properly, channeled to the right venues, and anchored on nature and culture, could provide a backbone for our Filipino families,” she said.

The former first lady chairs the House special committee on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to cut world poverty by half by 2015.

Her bill proposes the creation of the Philippine Millennium Development Fund (PMDF).

Jose Conrado Benitez, Mrs. Marcos’ deputy in the old Ministry of Human Settlements during the regime of her late husband, recommended the creation of the fund.

Benitez, whose son Alfredo Abelardo is a Negros Occidental congressman, serves as consultant to the former first lady.

Marcos said her proposed PMDF could help the government attain the MDG objective of halving poverty in five years.

She said present government efforts are apparently not sufficient to attain such an objective.

“It has come to our attention that the present efforts have not met some major targets, so we have to double our initiatives to speed up our country’s drive towards our goals. It seems that based on official government reports, our poverty situation worsened today than when we started ten years ago. Yet, we only have five years left to meet these goals,” she said.

She noted that the poverty threshold went up from 13.5 percent of the population in 2003 to 14.6 percent in 2006.

“We must do everything in our power to ensure the fulfillment of our cause. When it comes to improving the quality of life of our people, there is no room for failure,” she said.

The proposed PMDF would be raised from P500 million and P100 million annual contributions from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, respectively.

But Mrs. Marcos envisions its biggest source of funding to come from overseas Filipino workers, who would be offered a “mutual fund subscription” plan.

The fund would also tap local and foreign donors. It would be used for poverty alleviation projects.

It would be administered by a board of trustees composed of a chairman to be appointed by the President and whose members would include representatives from rural bankers, governors, barangay communities, and the secretaries of finance, labor and economic planning.

Mrs. Marcos urged her colleagues to approve her proposal as soon as possible “given the urgency of the situation with 2015 looming within the next half-decade.”