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Friday, June 30, 2006
Roperos: Battling mass poverty
By Godofredo M. Roperos
Politics Also
If President Arroyo is really serious about fighting mass poverty in the country, something that dogged the trail of other presidents since the nation became independent in 1946, then she must assign someone to coordinate things.
The Palace should put together a systematized and credible program to contain what appears to be a deluge of problems that tend to aggravate the current condition of the nation’s poor and low-income people in our countryside.
There is that saying that when it rains, it pours. This is the situation I was recently reminded with in my hometown when the recent typhoon caused a downpour that resulted in the flooding of the ground floor of our house, something that has not happened for quite sometime now.
This seems to be what is happening to GMA. After having gone through the travail of her presidency’s legitimacy, she is being clobbered by skyrocketing oil prices and inflation.
There is no doubt that President Arroyo has become like a beleaguered woman. She is being driven to a point where it seems there’s no chance of her ever escaping from the trident-bearing demons of the political opposition, the cause-oriented left and the aggressive right.
I do not know what would become of the new impeachment case filed against her. While I think it is a legitimate move, I do question its being re-filed now.
The above scenario might be inappropriate to the circumstance I am trying to project. But still, it does seem an image quite enough for a president being cornered and pinned down by her adversaries that she herself has generated from her administrative acts of omission and commission.
Indeed, there are urgent multifarious national concerns besieging her like virulent demons. Unfortunately, she appears incapable of containing and disarming them.
Let it not be said, though, that she has not mobilized her administrative machinery to do battle against her tormentors. She has, only it does not appear well coordinated and working cohesively to insure effectiveness, and evoke the needed credibility and support from the people.
Her pronouncement of undertaking massive poverty alleviation does not project the needed credibility in the face of her government’s fiscal dilemma.
Not very long ago, the secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) did reveal that about 35 million Filipinos receive daily wage equivalent to only $2 a day. Their incomes should be doubled, but some P25 billion more is needed.
This fact is many months old already. There is a better than even chance the figures have gone up. With the steady rise in oil prices and the effects of the inflationary trend in our economy, what could the country expect?
To be able to acquire the estimated amount alone, the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) should be made to grow at a rate of 7 percent more over the next few years in order to raise the more than P80 billion GDP to more than P100 billion.
It can be done, the then DTI secretary projected, either through the development of small and medium scale industries (SME) or through our top 10,000 firms. The problem is, how can our people get the “buying power” to support SMEs?
That is a basic question. Where do we get the answer?
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 30, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
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