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Thursday, October 07, 2004
Editorials: Stalking hunger
HUNGER, it is said, is a loyal bedfellow of poverty. It goes where poverty is, and always takes a stranglehold on the innocent unsuspecting souls who fall “victim” to material want, not really of their own choice but by accident of birth.
Hunger stalks the poor wherever they go, followed not far behind by the wily, scythe-carrying symbol of life’s end, the Grim Reaper. Death, after all, is the natural consequence of hunger due to poverty.
Just the other day, a national daily headlined the result of a Social Weather Stations survey (SWS) regarding poverty in the country. It revealed that at least 15 percent of the heads of families reported that they had nothing to eat at least once in the past three months up to the time of the survey in August.
The survey also revealed that the nation’s poverty level has greatly risen over the past year.
Hardest hit is Mindanao where the incidence of hunger has risen to some 23 percent, or about four times that of September last year. In the Visayas, it was 13.3 percent in August, triple that of last year. If it is any consolation to Cebuanos, Metro Manila has the second highest at 15.7 percent, double that of 2003.
The new data from SWS also indicated that inflation, or the increase in the prices of basic commodities, is highest in 34 months. This means the value of the take home pay of the nation’s daily wage earners has been reduced in direct proportion to the economy’s inflationary trend. In fact, the survey says 53 percent of respondents self-rated themselves as poor.
With the nation in the throes of a grave economic condition that tilts the balance of the social equation toward mass discontent, the challenge to the national leadership has become more complex.
It demands for immediate and effective solution. For, if left unattended, hunger will undermine the force of stable societies and gnaws at the vitals of the unfortunate poor. It can turn them into social malcontents.
Reasonable taxation
IN the face of the financial crisis the country is experiencing right now, and the need to resolve the problem at the soonest possible time, the imposition of more taxes on our people has become the most titillating solution.
Taxation has suddenly bloomed in the consciousness of average taxpayers.
But the danger of overtaxing the people has become a sword of Damocles that hangs over the “head” of government, for an overtaxed citizenry can also become belligerent and recalcitrant.
Take the reported tax in the form of filing fees for criminal complaints. Now, even citizens seeking redress of grievances in courts are asked to pay.
While imposition of taxes is a practice accepted as the only means to raise the needed funds to finance the nation’s governance, it should be tempered with openness and reason to enable the people to know how their taxes are used.
(October 7, 2004 issue)
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