Progress on MDGs worse than gov’t admits

MANILA, Philippines—The poverty situation in the Philippines is “much worse” that the government is prepared to admit in its 2010 progress report on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the nongovernment Social Watch Philippines (SWP) said Wednesday.

In its alternative report to the government’s “Fourth Progress Report on the MDGs 2010”, the SWP said there are more poor Filipinos now than 10 years ago when the country set off on its MDGs.

In its own report entitled “Winning the Numbers, Losing the War: The Other MDG Report 2010,” the SWP said poverty declined from 45.3 percent in 1991 to 30 percent in 2003, but rose steadily up to 32.9 percent in 2006.

Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga had admitted as much in the official report.

But the SWP said the situation in 2010 is probably worse.

“Considering the impact of the global crises in 2008-2009 and the natural disasters of 2009, the poverty situation could only have gotten worse,” said SWP convenor Isagani Serrano, an executive of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

Financing gap

Another SWP lead convenor, former National Treasurer Leonor Briones blamed the financing gap for the country’s poor response to the poverty situation.

“An MDG-sensitive budget will correct the inequalities highlighted in the shadow report,” she said.

Briones and Serrano presented the SWP’s “shadow report” to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. at the Batasan Pambansa complex in Quezon City.

President Aquino is set to present the government’s official report on the MDGs at a summit of world leaders during the United Nations General Assembly in New York later this month.

Minimum commitments

The MDGs are a set of minimum commitments to eradicate poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality in education, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS and ensure environmental sustainability by 2015.

Serrano said the official report was “impressive” in its goal-by-goal analysis and solutions.

“But after all is said and done, we are still left wondering why numbers don’t seem to add up and reflect the deterioration of the national situation,” he said.

Like poverty, the quality of education is “even worse,” no thanks to the low net enrollment rate, and moderate cohort survival rate and completion rate, according to SWP.

The country scored high on promoting gender equality in education, and on reducing child mortality. But ironically the goal of improving maternal health was at a great risk, SWP said.

‘Problematic’

Progress on combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases was on the whole positive, but documentation of cases of AIDS/HIV remained “problematic,” according to SWP.

The SWP said the country’s progress in ensuring environmental sustainability was “high on all counts,” thanks to an increase in forest cover and expansion of protected areas.

The decline in biodiversity and forest quality, however, has yet to be arrested and reversed, it said. –TJ Burgonio, Philippine Daily Inquirer