Monday, January 05, 2009 Oledan: Beyond Statistics By Radzini Oledan
IF THERE is any credible indicator on the level of development of our country, it is the situation of our children.
In Southern Mindanao and elsewhere, there is an increase in the number of impoverished families and their children who are experiencing severe hunger, based on the latest Social Weather Stations survey. The 2008 Fourth Quarter survey listed a record high in the number of Filipino families that went hungry at least once in the past three months.
The proportion of families experiencing involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months reached 23.7 percent, or an estimated 4.3 million households. Moderate hunger, which refers to that experienced "only once" or "a few times" in the last three months, rose from 15.2 percent or about 2.7 million families in September to a new record-high 18.5 percent (some 3.3 million families) in December. Severe hunger, which refers to that experienced "often" or "always" in the last three months, went from 3.2 percent or about 580,000 families in September to 5.2 percent about 940,000 families in December.
But this latest SWS survey should not come as a surprise. Severe economic crisis coupled by skewed policies and strong decision making only for the benefit of the ruling class has managed to put the country on the top of international recognition for hunger and undernourishment.
Data from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) shows that about 20 to 34 percent of 74.2 million Filipinos are undernourished, a situation which is worse than those in Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam where only five to 19 percent of the population was undernourished. Some 25,000 people reportedly die of hunger and poverty each day. Measured annually, around six million children under the age of five are dying of hunger.
The Philippines was also listed as one of the 33 countries with a serious hunger problem along with troubled economies such as Myanmar, Timor Leste, and others located in Africa.
Drastic cuts in responding to basic household necessities and cost of living have translated to an increase in the number of undernourished children. Three out of 10 pre-schoolers are malnourished or underweight. In actual numbers, there are 3.7 million malnourished pre-school children.
All indications show that majority of the families have lowered their living standards to cope with hunger but is this country too poor in terms of food? Or is this just a matter of an increasing populace who have grown weary and unbelieving of the administrations' pronouncements and delusions of economic growth?
A report from the National Statistics Office shows that poverty incidence affected 19.9 percent of families in urban areas and 46.9 percent in rural areas. Real number of poor families climbed to 5.1 million, 1.5 million of them in urban areas and 3.6 million in rural areas. Some 2.5 million families were living in subsistence level, meaning their income was not enough to buy their basic food requirements.
Poverty persists despite a massive food subsidy program and an increase in the allocation of pro-poor programs, such as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, a flagship project which provides subsidies to poor families. Recently, a World Bank study showed that only a third of subsidized rice sold by the National Food Authority went to the poorest 20 percent of Filipino households. In 2006, as much as 41 percent ended up in non-poor households, while an estimated 16 percent of NFA rice went to the two highest income groups. Leakage in the Food for Poor program was also placed by the World Bank at 40 percent.
Responding to this problem requires more than judicious use of scarce government resource as much as proper policies and conscientious people taking the lead. I am reminded of the fearless forecast of a friend that the global economy will end as one embarks on a journey to a foreign land. For all of the optimisms, things are turning to be real gloomy.
