Wednesday, July 25, 2007 Nalzaro: Arroyo’s dream By Bobby Nalzaro Saksi
A HIGHLIGHT in President Arroyo's State of the Nation Address (Sona) the other day was her promise to make the country join other rich nations in 2020 by eliminating poverty.
Though the President did not lay down specifics on how to do it, she was optimistic of achieving that goal. She then enumerated her other plans, like providing one million jobs a year and pouring huge investments in infrastructure in Mindanao.
Our country being a Third World country means poverty is its number one problem. But while the most severe poverty is in the developing world, there is evidence of poverty in every region in developed countries, examples of which are their homeless people.
Poverty has many categories, but it generally means material need, typically of necessities of daily living (food, clothing, shelter and health care). Poverty in this sense maybe understood as a condition in which a person or community is deprived of and/or lacks the essentials for a minimum standard of well-being and life.
How many Filipinos are suffering from poverty? We don't need to go to Payatas in Quezon City or to Smokey Mountain in Metro Manila. The poor are in our own backyard. Visit the slums in Ermita, Pasil and Mambaling and the Inayawan sanitary landfill. Walk around the downtown area at night and early in the morning and you can find them in the sidewalks.
There are the sakadas in Negros, who are being exploited by wealthy hacienderos, and the farmers in rural areas. There are the indigenous tribes still living in the mountains and those who belong to the underprivileged and marginal sectors in our society. They are the living signs that our country is suffering from poverty.
With her vision and mission, how come President Arroyo is still talking about uplifting the living condition of the people in her remaining three years in power? Where was this vision and mission when she assumed power in 2001?
We will only be freed from the bondage of poverty if all Filipinos have decent work and sufficient income for their needs.
We should first solve the unemployment problem because that is the first step in solving poverty.
To achieve that entails major changes not only on the part of government but in our culture as well. We should be self-reliant and not rely on dole-outs from the government. Everyone should work to earn living. What government should do is just to provide opportunities for employment.
Until that is done, Arroyo's vision will remain an impossible dream.
