Poverty the greatest injustice, says LP bet

CEBU, Philippines – Liberal Party senatorial candidate Leila de Lima said poverty is the greatest injustice among Filipinos today.

“The greatest injustice among Filipinos, it’s really poverty.  Although (it’s) impossible to eradicate poverty completely. We can never be poverty-free 100 percent in the same manner we can never be corruption-free 100 percent, but it is a question of magnitude and gravity,” said the former Justice secretary in her visit to The Freeman the other day.

De Lima believes that poverty can be reduced to a significant degree if the anti-corruption efforts are sustained and people are educated.

“I believe that the greatest accelerator of economic and social mobility is education, education and education. So kapag marami pa ring mga Pilipino ang mahihirap,  that’s the greatest injustice  and we have to find ways,” de Lima said.

She added that she is crafting the idea of justice that is not only the common perception of justice which is sending criminals to jail, going after the corrupt but also social justice issues.

“As a human rights advocate nag-focus ako ngayon sa economic, social and cultural rights like the right to education and  the human rights perspective on how to translate this into a concrete legislative measure na mas accessible ang basic human rights,” she said.

Meanwhile, de Lima said that if she is elected as senator, she will work for free scholarship for farmer’s children as one way of improving the lives of their families.

“The farmers are the most hardworking and yet they remain poor. So what is the problem?” de Lima said.

She said the focus has been to increase productivity of the farmers. Although she sees nothing is wrong with this, she said it is time to also take a look at the increased cost of production and find solution how to decrease it so that there will be more profit on the part of the farmers.

Aside from this, she said, the youth of today including farmer’s children are no longer interested in farming and do not want to engage in agriculture.

“But one way of motivating the farmer’s children is through free education in state universities and colleges by letting these children get to know and learn other skills that can contribute to farming and help in increasing the economic situation of their families,” de Lima said. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/JMD (FREEMAN)