Poor no more

I wrote this in August 2002 when GMA was still new to the job and the promise was high.

“When you compare statistics around the region it doesn’t matter what it is, the Philippines is either at or close to the worst.

And this is not just a recent phenomenon but one that goes back 25 years, or more.

If you had a business where all your competitors were doing better than you, wouldn’t you start to think maybe you were doing something wrong?

It would seem to me an indisputable fact: The Philippines is doing it wrong. And because it (its leaders) is, a large majority of Filipinos are living unacceptably degrading lives, or fleeing to another country. Forget the government figures, they’re ludicrously understated. Even SWS are because they use an internationally-accepted definition of poverty that I don’t accept.

How I would define poverty?

To be above the line you should have:

A job for at least one in the family

A decent place to live in (owned, or rented)

Three decent meals a day for all in the family

Decent clothing for all members of the family

Ability to pay education costs

Ability to buy life and health insurance

Ability to have occasional entertainment for the family

Based on this definition, an average family of five should earn at least P17,500 a month (that would be P25,200 now). Hence, there are probably a little over 60 percent who are below a decent standard of living for a human being.

The current absurd definition is at a sub-human level. A level no one reading this would ever want to be at—or even understand (and this includes me).’’

Seven years later, none (mark that: none) has been even halfway achieved. The President can crow all she likes about the reforms she’s done (I’ve requested a list from the Palace but I am still waiting for it) but an economy that seems to be bucking the world trend by growing is meaningless when human decency can’t even be maintained. You can’t eat GDP.

Forget the meaningless percentages, there are more people—physical, actual, real, suffering people—in poverty today than there were in 2003. We estimate about four million more using government figures. I consider that unacceptable, as would any decent, caring person. And of course if you use my definition the number is what? Forty million? Fifty million? Sixty million? Can Social Weather Stations or Pulse Asia do a survey for us based on my definition?

My problem is who among the current hopefuls could genuinely fix this, not just mouth promises. High on the list must be a genuine attack on corruption so the poor get the support they desperately need. Not someone getting another mansion somewhere overseas.

It won’t happen without a strong, honest leader. Stopping corruption must emanate from the top.

The way it was done in Hong Kong and is now beginning to have effect in Indonesia was to create an anti-corruption body with wide-ranging powers and keep it adequately manned and funded. One that is and can successfully fight to be fully independent. It needs a strong, honest leader who can withstand attack and is fully supported by the president. It’s not easy to find such a person, the only one so far (Simeon Marcelo) got burnt out by the experience. The present one seems to think that someone who exposed a bribe offer they refused should be indicted. How she can arrive at that conclusion I have absolutely no idea. People may complain that Romulo Neri didn’t come out with the complete story (let’s hope he now does), but to imply he’s guilty of something from his exposé is quite incredible. The people he mentioned who could perhaps be involved have not even been queried as to their role. Incredible. My dictionary says an Ombudsman is “an official who is appointed to investigate complaints against the administration.” Well Neri raised complaints, where’s the investigation?

“FDI inflows pick up in May.” Don’t be fooled, around $300 million of the $388 million that came in was Kirin buying San Miguel. That does nothing for the economy, just changes ownership of an existing business. No new jobs, no new products, no new services. Nothing. Nice to have the dollars in the bank to strengthen international reserves, but that’s it. And international reserves is not our problem, giving people jobs is.

As you know if you read my articles, denying reality, obfuscation, window dressing are a major bugaboo of mine. You can’t fix things if you don’t admit that something is wrong. The Philippine economy is in terrible shape, it’s one of the worst in Asia so it needs some radical surgery to fix it. If anyone wishes to dispute this sad fact, they’ve just got to refer to my Web site and the many comparisons I’ve made on the state of the country vis-à-vis its neighbors’, and the world’s. It ranks depressingly low —and the numbers haven’t got better, many have worsened.

The poor remain abjectly poor. That’s where the focus must be—so they’ll be poor no more. –Manila Standard Today

Comments to my columns can be sent to wbfplw@smartbro.net