Ahon Pamilyang Pinoy

The latest World Bank report personally delivered by its former president shows that poverty in the country is worsening despite the general economic growth. The number of poor people increases by around 1.3 million people every year, as the price of oil continues to increase, making food more expensive, while wages remain the same, according to the latest report. This situation seems to contradict a year-end (2007) Asia Economic Monitor Report by the Asian Development Bank that reported the country’s gross domestic product at 7.3 percent, the highest recorded growth rate from 1986, when a 7.7 percent growth rate was achieved.

The same report by the National Statistics and Census Board (NCSB), states that a family with five members need to earn at least P8,569 monthly in order not to be classified as poor. However, more than 12 million people could not meet the P27.80 a day threshold for food. Furthermore, roughly 16.1 million Filipino workers, or more than 50 percent of the labor force, mostly unskilled workers and agricultural laborers earn P5,000 – 8,000 (P33-53 per person per day), an income level that hovers around the 2007 poverty threshold pegged at P40 per person per day.

Foreign investments are increasing despite the political crisis and at no other time in history has the peso been strong and stable as it is. But all these seem to benefit only a few elite and capitalists, making them wealthier. On the other hand, those with hardly any resources keep getting poorer. This enhances the gap between the rich and poor. The rapid migration from the provinces to the urban areas worsens the gap, with labor moving out of agriculture, while urban dwellers remain jobless, with most of them hardly able to cope with competition and industry demands in the cities. Thus we see rising condominiums and building side by side with expanding slum areas in the metropolis.

The provinces of Tawi-Tawi, now reported to be the poorest, Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Apayao, Surigao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Northern Samar, Masbate, Abra and Misamis Occidental still remain poor and their local government officials, with a lot of support from the national government, must do something to move them up from this situation.

We read about a concrete solution that can have a tremendous impact on poverty alleviation, if implemented diligently. One of the first acts of the administration early this year was the allotment of five billion pesos to the “Ahon Pamilyang Pinoy” Program, which aims to attack the poverty problem through the provision of a more direct incentive for poor families to send their children to school. The poorest of families will be given stipends on the condition that their children are kept in school and taken for regular medical check ups. A similar program transformed one of the poorest countries and unequal society in the seventies, Brazil, into one of economic stabilization in the nineties, proving that education and health are the important ingredients to lift a nation from poverty.

Maryse Gautier, acting country director for the World Bank in the Philippines, said, “The Philippines has demonstrated its ability to perform at par with or better than its regional neighbors on the economic front in recent years. The challenge moving forward is to accelerate the pace of reducing poverty, delivering social services to the poor, and attracting more job-creating investments”.

Like any government, there is imbalance and nothing is perfect in any country. Otherwise, some would be out of this world. Any persistent problem must be given a focused solution. Our goal is to uplift the man at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Let us look after our neighbors in need. We may be able to help in simple, non-expensive ways. On the other hand, the poor should remain strong in spirit, with an unwavering faith in God, to uplift themselves from the quagmire of want. As long as people are alive and strong, there is always hope.