Polls silent on impact of govt’s hunger-poverty relief work

Enemies of the Arroyo administration immediately seized on the Social Weather Station (SWS) data to pillory President Gloria Arroyo over the latest hunger and poverty survey results.

The latest (December 2009)  Social Weather Survey of hunger and poverty shows a new record-high incidence of hunger—24 percent— which tops the former record-high of 23.7 percent in December 2008.

But no one has blamed Secretary Esperanza Cabral and her co-officials and co-workers in the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).  They are (now “were” in the case of  Dr. Cabral, who on Friday became secretary of Health department) the persons directly responsible for the government’s immediate task of alleviating hunger and poverty.  There is also a National Anti-Poverty Commission but that is charged with the “remote task” of vanquishing poverty.

Perhaps the reason the anti-Arroyo politicians have not lambasted Secretary Cabral is that they know that under her watch these past several years the Social Welfare department has done its job quite well—and transparently.

A consistent critic of the administration and President Arroyo, Inquirer columnist Manuel Quezon 3rd, devoted a column defending Cabral over the accusations against DSWD’s performance in the efforts to give relief to victims of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng.

Wrote Quezon:

“Secretary Esperanza Cabral of the DSWD has been, on the whole, patient and committed to the utmost transparency and accountability in the handling of donations, while taking pains to explain what her department is doing—and how it pains the rank and file to operate under a climate of mistrust born, not of her current handling of the twin crises, but of the mishandling of previous ones . . . .

“ . . .  The DSWD has done a lot, as it is; so the public interest lies in figuring out how it could do better—which it can’t do, without the public participating by means of criticism and helping in problem-solving.

“What struck me immediately about the controversial blog entry was that the problems the public has come to associate with officialdom and relief were notably absent. There was no pilfering, no looting, no diversion of relief to line official pockets. This, in itself, is a colossal achievement: the warehouses are secure, items are tidily kept and they presumably end up where they should. Another thing that struck me was that the secretary has proven true to her pledge to be transparent and accountable about donations: they are publicly available, on line, listing monetary donations, and donations in kind, and the disbursement of relief goods.”

Successful efforts

There is more to the story of hunger and poverty in our country.  And one of these stories, which the media—including this paper—have neglected to tell is that the DSWD’s efforts to fight poverty and hunger have been quite successful.  The full story is in this special report’s article “What the DSWD did for the poor in 2009.”

A most impressive effort is the Philippine version of the conditional cash-transfer program, which is supported by the World Bank.  Because of the DSWD’s successful handling of this program (which is borrowed from the Mexican original), the World Bank is giving the Philippines a loan of $337.4 million for the continued implementation of this—the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (or the 4Ps)—in 2010.  This will increase the number of families benefited from 700,000 to one million this year.

Also because of DSWD’s effective, transparent and corruption-free pro-poor programs, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton—who chairs the US Millennium Challenge Corp. (MMC)—worked it out for the Philippines to receive funding.  We had been disqualified from MCC aid because  of  the administration’s failure to meet the anti-corruption criterion required of MCC clients. But DSWD’s good work moved Sec. Clinton to make a special case of the Philippines.

The Manila Times has been working to persuade policymakers that, as our Page 1 commentator, J. T. Gatbonton has stated it, “Anti-poverty efforts must focus on the absolutely poor.”  Sec. Cabral’s DSWD had this policy. We hope Undersecretary Luwalhati Pablo and the other Welfare officials will maintain it. –Rene Q. Bas Editor In Chief, Manila Times