THE growing number of poor Filipinos debunks the Aquino administration’s claim that its strategy for fighting poverty works and should be continued by the succeeding administration, the research group IBON said Sunday, one day before President Benigno Aquino III delivers his final State-of-the-Nation Address.
Aquino III, an activist calls for the passage of his promised Freedom of Information
law during a protest at Manila’s Mendiola Bridge. DANNY PATA
Even with a lower standard of only P52 a day as the official poverty line, the number of poor has gone up to 25.8 percent of the population in the first semester of 2014, up from 24.6 percent in the same period in 2013, IBON said, quoting official government statistics.
In IBON’s own May 2015 nationwide survey of 1,496 individuals, 79.6 percent of respondents said their livelihood did not improve in recent months, and 72.3 percent said that poverty did not go down in recent months. Most respondents also rated themselves poor and said they had difficulty in spending for basic needs and social services.
IBOn said its survey also showed a larger share of respondents (67.2 percent) who said they see their situation today as poor, compared to those who said the same in January (64.6 percent).
IBON said these figures were more consistent with its estimates using official data that some 55 million to 66 million Filipinos live on only P100 to P125 a day, well below the P181 needed by a person to live decently.
The National Statistics Office, using a lower yardstick of P52 a day, counted only 23.8 million poor Filipinos in 2012.
IBON said the data showed that the Aquino administration’s centerpiece for alleviating poverty—its conditional cash transfer program that has spent P178 billion in doles to the poor as of 2014—was not the answer to deep and widespread poverty, despite a 526 percent increase in its budget since 2010.
“The conditional cash transfers or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) was more than ever proven to be temporary, expensive and shallow,” IBON said, adding that it was riddled with loopholes in its targeting system.
A militant labor group on Sunday said the last five years under Aquino have been “exceptionally taxing on Filipino workers.”
The Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino (BMP) said in a statement that they would march toward Congress to protest the administration’s labor polices during the SONA.
“We have much more enthusiasm than ever before. Living under the elitist policies of Aquino for five burdensome has armed us with determination,” said Leody de Guzman, chairman of the BMP.
“The past five years has been exceptionally taxing on the Filipino workers. Aquino attacked us on two fronts. On one hand, he suppressed wages despite the [rising] cost of living… and also at the same time, he withheld government subsidies on basic services,” De Guzman said.
The BMP also attacked the increase in worker contributions to the Social Security System and PhilHealth, the privatization of the light rail system and public hospitals, and the K-12 program that added two years to the primary education system.
On the eve of the President’s last SONA, the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) said Aquino could be proud of no legacy.
“The so-called Tuwid na Daan [straight path] has turned out to be a flooded, pot-hole filled path to nowhere,” Bayan said in a statement. That until now Aquino cannot even fulfill his campaign promise to enact the freedom of information act shows the pretentiousness and hypocrisy that has characterized his presidency.”
The group also accused the administration of continuing to use pork barrel even after it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. This, the group said was “a testament to the large-scale, systemic corruption that goes on.”
“The 2015 budget has P27.39 billion worth of congressional pork tucked in the budgets of various departments, subject to the lawmakers’ referrals and recommendations,” Bayan added.
It also pointed out that there were P958 billion in lump-sum funds, including P33.1 billion for assistance to local government units and a “grassroots participatory budgeting” fund of P20.9 billion, which are both under Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II, the presumptive standard bearer for the Liberal Party in the 2016 presidential elections.
“The selective prosecution of corrupt officials belonging to the political opposition is in stark contrast to the spirited defense by Aquino himself of his inept and corrupt close friends and associates, showing how crooked the path has become,” Bayan said.
“Aquino’s bungling, fraternity-type presidency was most apparent in the Mamasapano incident where 44 PNP SAF [Philippine National Police Special Action Force] personnel died due to his criminal negligence, gross incompetence and blatant violation of the PNP chain of command. If not for the people’s vigilance, presidential best friend Alan Purisima would still be PNP chief.”