Every Filipino will have to tighten his belt. It is a situation that calls for national and individual sacrifice. It is the only way that we can possibly avoid a default of public debt which is what happened to Argentina in January 2002. Every Filipino and his family will have to have a plan on how to reduce their expenses to a minimum so that the country can survive this present crisis. It will not be an easy task. But there is no doubt in our mind that the Filipinos can meet this great challenge.
The most depressing thing about our current fiscal crisis is the statement of the United Nations Development Program that based on the 2004 Common Country Assessment: Around P100 billion or 13 percent of the Philippines’ P781 billion budget in 2001 went to the pockets of corrupt officials. Yet we don’t hear or read reports of government officials being accused, charged or prosecuted for graft and corruption. This is the very first step we should take to tackle our financial crisis. Many government officials are not only alleviating our financial problem; they have in fact aggravated the problem. The solution to the fiscal crisis should begin by going after corrupt government officials. That is the most positive step the administration can undertake. Corrupt officials definitely contributed to the cause of our present fiscal crisis.
Our current fiscal crisis cannot be blamed on the present administration. It is a problem that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has inherited from the past. It is not she who is responsible for our trillion peso debts. But it is she who must now cope for paying back these trillion peso debts. We don’t believe that any past president ever had to face such an awesome problem.
During the presidency of her father, Diosdado Macapagal, foreign and domestic debts were not a problem. But even then, the main motto of the administration was "Simple Living". Diosdado Macapagal urged the people to live humbly as that they could save and channel those savings to go into activities that would produce wealth or create more employment. That is what we will have to do today. Go back to simple living or if we want to use a more drastic term, a belt-tightening program.
Leadership should be by example. It would be good if the people in government and the business sector would set this great example. Let us do away with all displays of luxurious living. Let us live simply and do our best to help all those who have less in life.
In Metro Manila, the most disadvantaged group is the street children. To us, they have always been the Holy Innocents of our times. We really wish that all the cities that comprise Metro Manila would all create centers for their street children. We dream of the day when our street children will not only be provided with homes and proper care but with all the opportunities for higher education. It was Lyman Abbot who saw every child as "A beam of sunlight from the Infinite and Eternal, with possibilities of virtue and vice – but as yet unstained".