Reprinted from the Asian Journal
(Second of two installments)
Last week, I jotted down statistics on current Philippine economy that stagger the mind. The richest 10% of the country earns twenty times more than the poorest 10%. Networth of the 40 richest Filipinos amount to $16 Billion U.S. currency, equivalent to the combined annual income of 9,600,000 families or 49 million Filipinos. Other stats claim that assets of the top 10 Filipinos alone ($12.4 billion) compare to the total earning capacity of 57% of the population!
Statistics can lie. They can be tweaked or fudged to make one side look better than the other. However, I see how these numbers translate into actual flesh and blood when we embark on medical missions to the Philippines. Whether we conduct our missions in outlying barrios or in city slums, the sheer volume åof malnourished children -- an unmistakable index of poverty -- is astonishing.
In the heart of the slum district of Baranggay Pasil, Cebu, early this year, we visited the orphanage run by the Missionaries of Charity (of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta). (see photos). We witnessed first-hand how the Sisters take care of toddlers who cannot stand, much less walk, because of advanced kwashiorkor. Some of the children looked like old men and women, with prominent eyeballs in sunken orbits -- like the ones you see photographed in famine areas such as Ethiopia and Darfur.
These children are not orphans. Their parents have not abandoned them. They simply do not have the resources to feed them. So the Missionary Sisters take them in and care for them for a year or so until they are healthy enough to return to their families.
Many Filipinos who live in the relatively affluent areas of Metro Manila, Cebu, Davao and other major cities do not readily see the extent of poverty afflicting the rural areas of the country. Residents in Cebu and Manila enjoy many luxurious amenities not easily found in major cities of the United States, Canada and Western Europe.
This fact may have been part of the impetus that compelled the CBCP (Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines) to issue an important Pastoral Statement on 28 January 2007. Drafted by the Archbishop of Jaro and CBCP President, Angel N. Lagdameo, D.D., the document is entitled “The Dignity of the Rural Poor -- A Gospel Concern”. It is a letter addressed to the “People of God in the Philippines” but may well be addressed to Filipinos residing outside of the Philippines as well.
The document, which I found displayed on the bulletin board at the Pontificio Collegio Filipino in Rome, states that “the overriding social concern of the Church of the Philippines has...centered on the inequitable distribution of the nation’s wealth and the endemic social injustices that underpin that evil.” The paper focuses attention “on the greatest victim of our unjust economic order, the rural poor, and the diminishment of their dignity as people and as citizens.”
The Pastoral Statement goes on to say that the poor are concentrated in the rural areas of the country. But while the ranks of the urban poor are also increasing, that situation is largely due to the migration of rural folks seeking job opportunities in the metropolitan areas.
Archbishop Lagdameo and the CBCP laud the government for instituting CARP (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) but lament that “its full implementation is still far off in the future -- if ever.” The government’s failure to carry out land reform is in no small measure due to “a landlord dominated Congress (which) watered down..its implementation.”
The “landed classes” which comprise the “traditional and economic elite of our country” lack the “vigor and determination” to implement the law. Simply put, “selfish class interests outweigh concern for the common good...”
The paper condemns “recent extrajudicial killings, perpetrated by groups from both the right and the left.” Farmers who struggle and fight for the implementation of land reform are considered a seditious threat to the economic elite and become targets of government sanctioned military campaigns. The same farmers also become targets of leftist brigands if unable to pay the “revolutionary tax” imposed on them by the NPA.
The bishops point out that condemnation of this structural evil in Philippine society is not enough. “We must,” they insist, “try bringing an end to evils that harm people and their good.”
The year 2007, the bishops remind us, is the 40th anniversary of the 1967 National Rural Congress. At that time, the Congress reached the “crucial conclusion that the Church must go to the barrios..(because) the rural part of the country were the most neglected by both the government’s development programs and the Chruch’s pastoral care.”
The Pastoral Statement concludes that “it is in not honoring the dignity of the least of our brothers and sisters among the poor that we contribute not a little to the injustices and inequalities that have become deeply ingrained in our national life.....”
Citing the Scriptural message from St. Matthew: “If you did it for one of my least brothers or sisters, you did it for me,” the bishops declare that “today, we see only too clearly the need for the reform not only of our national institutions but of our very moral fiber as a people.”
There are countless ways, big and small, that we can help alleviate poverty in the Philippines. The Missionaries of Charity orphanage needs food, medicine, clothing, cribs, shoes, etc. For those concerned and interested in helping the orphanage in Pasil, Cebu, you may send your contribution, in cash/check or goods, directly to:
Sr. Ruth, MC
Missionaries of Charity
Bgy. Suba Pasil
Cebu
Tel (032) 261-9097
Showing posts with label Socio-Economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Socio-Economics. Show all posts
Friday, November 23, 2007
Friday, November 16, 2007
Poverty in the Philippines
Reprinted from the Asian Journal
November 16, 2007
(First of two installments)
You may have come across a news item heralding a bright economic forecast for the Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in a speech before the National Press Club, declared the country’s graduation from Third World to “Second World” or “Middle Class Country”.
The economist president based her optimistic comments on the fact that the annual per capita income has topped $1400 per year. Indeed, under Arroyo’s government, GNI per capita has steadily grown from $1,040 in 2000, $1,200 in 2004, and $1300 in 2006, as verified by the World Bank. Recently, GNI achieved the magic number of $1400/year. Assuming an annual decline of the poverty index by 1%, the President predicted the Philippines would join the prestigious rank of First World Countries by the year 2020.
I reacted to this news as if it was June 12, 1898 all over again, when Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed independence from 400 years of Spanish colonial rule. Isn’t it about time we broke the shackles of colonialism and poverty, harnessed the talents of 85.2 million Filipinos, managed our natural resources wisely, got rid of political corruption, and closed the gap between the rich and the poor?
Happy images danced in my head, like throngs of exultant Filipino expatriates chartering flights back to the “best place on earth”, unending fiestas in prosperous and Wi-Fi connected rural communities, JCAHO accredited medical centers providing accessible health care to all, 5-star beach resorts affordable not only to Japanese, Korean, and German tourists but to Juan de la Cruz and his family. What a joy to imagine Dr. Jose Rizal’s “pearl of the orient seas” gloriously emerging from its craggy shell!
Shortly, thereafter, I read statistics that proclaimed the opposite. Eighty percent or 69 million Filipinos barely survive on P98 or $2 a day. Economic inequality -- or the gap between the haves and the have-nots --has actually widened the last 20 years. Income for the richest 10% is at least twenty times that of the poorest 10%. The net worth of the 40 most affluent Filipinos is $16 Billion or equivalent to the annual income of the poorest 9,600,000 families (approximately 49 million Filipinos).
Are we talking about the same country? The pristine archipelago made up of 7,107 tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean, ranked the 12th most populous country in the world but 39th in the listing of world economies?
According to Forbes Asia (December 25, 2006), Henry Sy, who owns 27 shopping malls, Banco de Oro Universal Bank, Highlands Prime Holdings, plus shares in China Banking Corporation and Equitable PCI Bank, is the richest Filipino with $4.0 billion. Next comes Lucio Tan, owner of Philippine Airlines, Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, etc., with $2.3 billion. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, patriarch of the oldest Philippine conglomerate, Ayala Corporation, which owns Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, Manila Water Co., Integrated Microelectronics, etc., ranks third with $2.0 billion.
The assets of these three billionaires, together with those of several other top millionaires -- Eduardo Cojuango ($840 Million), George Ty ($830), John Gokongwei ($700), Tony Tan Caktiong ($575), Andrew Tan ($480), Emilio Yap ($350), Oscar Lopez ($315 million) and others -- surely qualify to make the country a First World kind of paradise. But do these super-rich Filipinos, living in the same country as 46 million Filipinos who barely earn a dollar a day and go to bed hungry each night, elevate the nation up to “Middle Class” status?
Nobody begrudges those who earn their money the hard way. John Gokongwei Jr., whose father died when he was only 13, sold thread, soap, and candles during World War II. He started a textile company at age 19 and ventured into food manufacturing at age 30. Gokongwei’s assets today include Cebu Pacific Air, Digital Telecommunications Philippines, First Private Power Corporation, JG Summit Petrochemical, Litton Mills, Robinsons Land, Robinsons Savings Bank, Sun Cellular, United Industrial Corp. and Universal Robina Corporation.
He could well be our Philippine version of Bill Gates or Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- bright, innovative, driven, hardworking entrepreneurs. But that is not the point.
From 2001 to 2006, due in part to “neoliberal globalization of the economy”, the net income of the top 1,000 corporations in the Philippines increased a whopping 327%, but left 11.3 % of the labor force unemployed and 18.7% underemployed.
Poverty is deeply entrenched because the development of a predominantly agriculture based economy is held back by rural land monopolies (Agro corporations). One-third of landowners still hold 80% of agricultural land. Seven out of ten farmers are landless. The much-heralded land reform has not come to fruition. The backward Philippine economy remains merely a source of cheap labor and raw materials while foreign and domestic boardrooms guide the government’s economic policies toward their parochial interests.
While the affluent barons spend their evenings in the best supper clubs and their weekends in luxurious beach resorts, 69 million of 85.2 million people struggle to survive. Thus, over 3,200 Filipinos leave the country each day, adding to the 10 million Filipinos toiling in 192 countries around the world, establishing the legend of the “Filipino Diaspora”.
Depending on one’s viewpoint, the phenomenon of the overseas Filipino worker is good or bad for the country. In 2006, expatriates remitted $12.8 billion, keeping the Philippine economy afloat. Remittances from Filipinos abroad make up the largest source of foreign revenue, surpassing the annual $2.5 billion direct foreign investment. While a boon to the economy, the phenomenon has contributed to dysfunctional family relationships and domestic strain.
President Arroyo-Macapagal is half right. In the second quarter of 2007, the Philippine economy did grow by 7.5%. Yes, the average per capita income of the Filipino is $1400 but that is only better than Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma). We teach Vietnam farmers how to grow rice at the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), yet we import rice from Vietnam.
We send our business professors from Manila’s Asian Institute of Management to teach Indonesians and Malaysians banking expertise. But our $117 billion economy ($145 according to other stats) is inferior to neighboring Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Our foreign debt burden has ballooned from $17 billion in 1980 to $60 billion in 2006.
First World Country by 2020? It could happen. But we would have to institute genuine land reform, spread the wealth, unleash the work force, get rid of politics as the national pastime. Likewise, regional development needs to be addressed because major economic benefits are narrowly funneled into Metro Manila at the expense of the impoverished central and southern regions of the country.
Certainly, we have diagnosed the illness. Do we have the national will to treat the disease?
more . . .
November 16, 2007
(First of two installments)
You may have come across a news item heralding a bright economic forecast for the Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in a speech before the National Press Club, declared the country’s graduation from Third World to “Second World” or “Middle Class Country”.
The economist president based her optimistic comments on the fact that the annual per capita income has topped $1400 per year. Indeed, under Arroyo’s government, GNI per capita has steadily grown from $1,040 in 2000, $1,200 in 2004, and $1300 in 2006, as verified by the World Bank. Recently, GNI achieved the magic number of $1400/year. Assuming an annual decline of the poverty index by 1%, the President predicted the Philippines would join the prestigious rank of First World Countries by the year 2020.
I reacted to this news as if it was June 12, 1898 all over again, when Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed independence from 400 years of Spanish colonial rule. Isn’t it about time we broke the shackles of colonialism and poverty, harnessed the talents of 85.2 million Filipinos, managed our natural resources wisely, got rid of political corruption, and closed the gap between the rich and the poor?
Happy images danced in my head, like throngs of exultant Filipino expatriates chartering flights back to the “best place on earth”, unending fiestas in prosperous and Wi-Fi connected rural communities, JCAHO accredited medical centers providing accessible health care to all, 5-star beach resorts affordable not only to Japanese, Korean, and German tourists but to Juan de la Cruz and his family. What a joy to imagine Dr. Jose Rizal’s “pearl of the orient seas” gloriously emerging from its craggy shell!
Shortly, thereafter, I read statistics that proclaimed the opposite. Eighty percent or 69 million Filipinos barely survive on P98 or $2 a day. Economic inequality -- or the gap between the haves and the have-nots --has actually widened the last 20 years. Income for the richest 10% is at least twenty times that of the poorest 10%. The net worth of the 40 most affluent Filipinos is $16 Billion or equivalent to the annual income of the poorest 9,600,000 families (approximately 49 million Filipinos).
Are we talking about the same country? The pristine archipelago made up of 7,107 tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean, ranked the 12th most populous country in the world but 39th in the listing of world economies?
According to Forbes Asia (December 25, 2006), Henry Sy, who owns 27 shopping malls, Banco de Oro Universal Bank, Highlands Prime Holdings, plus shares in China Banking Corporation and Equitable PCI Bank, is the richest Filipino with $4.0 billion. Next comes Lucio Tan, owner of Philippine Airlines, Fortune Tobacco, Asia Brewery, etc., with $2.3 billion. Jaime Zobel de Ayala, patriarch of the oldest Philippine conglomerate, Ayala Corporation, which owns Ayala Land, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Globe Telecom, Manila Water Co., Integrated Microelectronics, etc., ranks third with $2.0 billion.
The assets of these three billionaires, together with those of several other top millionaires -- Eduardo Cojuango ($840 Million), George Ty ($830), John Gokongwei ($700), Tony Tan Caktiong ($575), Andrew Tan ($480), Emilio Yap ($350), Oscar Lopez ($315 million) and others -- surely qualify to make the country a First World kind of paradise. But do these super-rich Filipinos, living in the same country as 46 million Filipinos who barely earn a dollar a day and go to bed hungry each night, elevate the nation up to “Middle Class” status?
Nobody begrudges those who earn their money the hard way. John Gokongwei Jr., whose father died when he was only 13, sold thread, soap, and candles during World War II. He started a textile company at age 19 and ventured into food manufacturing at age 30. Gokongwei’s assets today include Cebu Pacific Air, Digital Telecommunications Philippines, First Private Power Corporation, JG Summit Petrochemical, Litton Mills, Robinsons Land, Robinsons Savings Bank, Sun Cellular, United Industrial Corp. and Universal Robina Corporation.
He could well be our Philippine version of Bill Gates or Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- bright, innovative, driven, hardworking entrepreneurs. But that is not the point.
From 2001 to 2006, due in part to “neoliberal globalization of the economy”, the net income of the top 1,000 corporations in the Philippines increased a whopping 327%, but left 11.3 % of the labor force unemployed and 18.7% underemployed.
Poverty is deeply entrenched because the development of a predominantly agriculture based economy is held back by rural land monopolies (Agro corporations). One-third of landowners still hold 80% of agricultural land. Seven out of ten farmers are landless. The much-heralded land reform has not come to fruition. The backward Philippine economy remains merely a source of cheap labor and raw materials while foreign and domestic boardrooms guide the government’s economic policies toward their parochial interests.
While the affluent barons spend their evenings in the best supper clubs and their weekends in luxurious beach resorts, 69 million of 85.2 million people struggle to survive. Thus, over 3,200 Filipinos leave the country each day, adding to the 10 million Filipinos toiling in 192 countries around the world, establishing the legend of the “Filipino Diaspora”.
Depending on one’s viewpoint, the phenomenon of the overseas Filipino worker is good or bad for the country. In 2006, expatriates remitted $12.8 billion, keeping the Philippine economy afloat. Remittances from Filipinos abroad make up the largest source of foreign revenue, surpassing the annual $2.5 billion direct foreign investment. While a boon to the economy, the phenomenon has contributed to dysfunctional family relationships and domestic strain.
President Arroyo-Macapagal is half right. In the second quarter of 2007, the Philippine economy did grow by 7.5%. Yes, the average per capita income of the Filipino is $1400 but that is only better than Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar (Burma). We teach Vietnam farmers how to grow rice at the IRRI (International Rice Research Institute), yet we import rice from Vietnam.
We send our business professors from Manila’s Asian Institute of Management to teach Indonesians and Malaysians banking expertise. But our $117 billion economy ($145 according to other stats) is inferior to neighboring Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Our foreign debt burden has ballooned from $17 billion in 1980 to $60 billion in 2006.
First World Country by 2020? It could happen. But we would have to institute genuine land reform, spread the wealth, unleash the work force, get rid of politics as the national pastime. Likewise, regional development needs to be addressed because major economic benefits are narrowly funneled into Metro Manila at the expense of the impoverished central and southern regions of the country.
Certainly, we have diagnosed the illness. Do we have the national will to treat the disease?
more . . .
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