“This unacceptable state of affairs should not be existing after 78 years of our stewardship of our nation’s affairs.”
There is much disquieting and sad about the government’s reaction to the results of the most recent survey on poverty and hunger conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) which were released last week.
I speak of disquiet and sadness because, while SWS’s findings were highly negative in character, there was no show of alarm and concern on the part of the political branches of the government. After the release of the findings, it was business as usual. It is difficult to avoid feeling that the government, and possibly a large part of the populace of this country, has become numb to the repeated indications of the existence of widespread poverty – poorness in SWS terminology – and hunger in this country.
What was so disquieting about the latest SWS poverty and hunger survey?
The survey, which had, 1,500 respondents and a plus/minus 2.5 percent margin of error, found that a total of 72 percent of Filipinos consider themselves as “poor” or “borderline poor.” The poor accounted for 59 percent of the total.
Of those who considered themselves poor, 29.3 percent said that they experienced involuntary hunger during the preceding three months.
These should be regarded as terrible figures. More than two-thirds of Filipinos consider themselves actually poor or almost poor and almost a third of that total consists of Filipinos who experience involuntary hunger at some points in their existence.
In well-governed and development-minded countries, these facts and figures would be received with horror and dismay and could very well lead to the fall of governments. Not in this country. Upon receipt of the latest bad news from the SWS, this country’s political leaders –in the Executive branch and in Congress – profess concern, make motherhood-type statements and quickly move on to the next objects of their partisan and personal interests. Business as usual until the next SWS poverty and hunger figures portraying more or less the same terrible socio-economic situation.
This unacceptable state of affairs should not be existing after 78 years of our stewardship of our nation’s affairs. That is a long time in the life of a country. For 78 years the political leaders of this country have independently plotted the course of our country’s socio-economic development, passing laws and making Executive decisions ostensibly intended to develop the national economy, raise the quality of life of Filipinos and place the Philippines within the ranks of the world’s progressive countries. Yet, here we are 78 years after 1946: with 72 percent of Filipinos considering themselves poor or nearly poor and many Filipinos occasionally experiencing involuntary hunger.
Many Filipinos have been, and are, quick to point to others – especially the U.S. and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – for this country’s failure to take its place among the world’s most rapidly emerging economies. To be sure, the Philippine government has experienced pressures of one sort or another from external sources; every country does. But there’s no getting away from the fact that during the last 78 years this country has been the master of its economic fate and whatever economic decision our government has made have essentially ben the results of independent, sovereign decision-making.
Some once said that the Philippines is a rich country pretending to be poor. I agree with the first part of the statement – that our country is a rich country – but I certainly do not agree with the statement’s last part. The SWS surveys have shown that poverty, or poorness, is not a matter of pretense; Poverty is there, staring us in the face.
The results of SWS poverty and hunger surveys must not be allowed to make us numb to the economic situation of many of our countrymen. Is it reasonable to expect SWS to report better findings in the near term? Given the present configuration of this country, only a non-realist would say yes. (llagasjessa@yahoo.com)
