COMMENTARY: Cant the Arroyo administration give intelligent solutions to our poverty problems? Is this the best thing the government could do — telling us to cut down on our luxuries when we dont even have enough money for our basic needs?
By Editha Inday Duterte
DAVAO CITY — Stop this madness!
Thinking that hunger will be wiped out in just six months through school feeding programs, barangay food terminals, government rolling stores, and providing cheap medicines through botika sa barangay is plain insanity.
Cant the Palace give intelligent solutions to our poverty problems? Is this the best thing the government could do — telling us to cut down on our luxuries when we dont even have enough money for our basic needs?
Right after the Social Weather Stations (SWS) released the result of its survey showing that an estimated 3.4 million households nationwide, or a fifth of all families, have experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months, Malacaang was humiliated because it earlier boasted of economic gains.
In Region 11 (Southern Mindanao), based from the figures of the National Statistics Office (NSO), we estimate that in 2007 there would be a total population of 6.2 million, with an average household size of five. This means that there is an estimated 1.2 million total families. Based on the SWSs figure that about a fifth of all families nationwide had experienced involuntary hunger, thats 240,000 families in the region who suffered the same thing.
The SWS survey result is a big blow to Malacanang. It is ironic that the government keeps on proclaiming economic development yet hundreds of thousands of Davaoenos and millions of Filipinos are getting hungry.
The Palaces so-called solutions to poverty right now is only meant to save its face, as it tries to persuade the public that it caters to the interests of the poor.
We assert that the conditions of the poor will not be alleviated by the anti-poor and pro-capitalists economic policies of the current administration. We maintain that the immediate and reasonable answers to the Filipinos problems are an increase in the workers salaries, decent and permanent jobs, and the provision of basic social services, among others. (davaotoday.com)
The author is the spokesperson of the Anakpawis Partylist in Southern Mindanao. She used to be with the urban-poor group Kadamay in Davao City.
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