NEDA officials told: Live on P64/day food budget

MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) should try living on a budget of P64 for their meals before they conclude that the budget does not make a person food poor, activist groups said yesterday.

Renato Reyes, president of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said the assessment of NEDA chief Arsenio Balisacan showed the Marcos administration is out of touch with the reality facing poor Filipinos who are struggling just to get decent meals.

“NEDA should try living on P64 per day for food for a year, before coming up with conclusions that such an amount does not make a person food poor,” Reyes said in a message on Viber.

Reyes said the NEDA is redefining poverty in the country, a thinking that keeps wages low.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) echoed Reyes’ statement, saying Balisacan and other economic managers should first experience for themselves how to live on a daily food budget of P64 a day before drawing conclusions on how ordinary Filipinos survive.

KMP chairman Danilo Ramos said the P64 per day food threshold or roughly P21 per meal computed by NEDA is far from enough to feed even a daily wage earner.

He said P64 is not enough to buy a decent dish and rice.

Labor coalition Nagkaisa chair Sonny Matula said NEDA’s claim could put lives at risk.

“Despite millions of pesos allotted to collect data, we are given outdated figures that do not reflect the current situation,” he said, citing an Ateneo study showing that a family needs a budget of P693.30 just to buy the main ingredients for dishes required for the Pinggang Pinoy, a food guide for balanced meals developed by the government.