Party-list lawmaker recommends aids for ‘moderate poor’

Arguing the case for support to his Party-list’s constituency, Ang Kasangga Rep. Teodorico Haresco said that financial assistance should also be provided for the moderate poor, which according to the World Bank definition, are those living on $2 to $5 per day.

He underscored that this segment, along with the poorest of the poor were suffering the most from the ravages of typhoons “Pedring” and “Quiel,” as he noted that “the poorest of the poor have P39 billion from the CCT (Conditional Cash Transfer) program to help them.”

“Something should be done for the next segment, which is no less badly hit,” Haresco said.

Haresco pointed out, however, that government resources were already badly overstretched, especially in trying to replace over P12 billion in damage visited by the twin calamities.

As such, he recommended the application of Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) funds to provide financial assistance for the country’s second poorest segment. He added that this segment was largely comprised of small and medium scale enterprise (MSME) farmers, fisherfolk, and traders, people whose simple livelihoods comprise a large part of the informal economy, which the ADB estimated in 2000 at 43.4% of GDP.

“These are the constituents of Ang Kasangga, and access to financial assistance that with the help of ODA’s concessional terms, can be lent to them at say 10 percent interest for four years, would be of great help,” he said.

“The calamities just showed how quickly lives and livelihoods can disappear. It’s heartbreaking. Overnight, anticipated harvests and painstakingly developed business were wiped out. This financial assistance is vital in establishing pag-asa (hope) in them.”

The lawmaker added that a financial assistance facility with such terms would save them from falling prey to “certain motorcycle bankers charging exorbitant rates.”

Related to this, Haresco pointed out that Climate Change is worsening and its effects will only intensify in coming years.

“It is cyclical and linear in its devastation,” he said. “It’s time to come to grips with reality,” he said. “The extreme rainfall that we refer diminutively to as La Niña (the Girl), because of the scale of damage this brings about, should be called La Bruha (the Witch); the severe drought and equally damaging effects of El Niño (the Boy) should be called El Kapre (the Ogre) just to emphasize that extreme weather can truly devastate the country.”

“We should disseminate the idea because we can no longer be complacent, especially in terms of disaster preparedness and recovery,” solon said, adding that the Philippines is now third in the United Nation’s Global Disaster Index. This should inject a sense of urgency in the country’s disaster management and recovery efforts.”

Haresco recommended that aside from an institutionalized recovery funding program, “strategies for resource management should be developed immediately.”

As an example he pointed out the problems the country has been experiencing, particularly in managing its water resources through its dams.

He lauded the DPWH plan to establish an integrated system to augment natural waterways, beginning with the construction of catch basins.

“Perhaps ancillary dams could be configured to catch water runoff also, to mitigate flooding during the typhoon season and drought during the dry season,” he said. –Charlie V. Manalo, Daily Tribune