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Sunday, March 25, 2007
P500M released to fight hunger
MANILA -- A day after claiming she herself was a “victim of hunger,” an “angry” President Arroyo cracked the whip on government officials in ordering them to implement “hunger mitigation” measures.
“She cracked the whip on all of us. She was angry and understandably so, because she doesn’t want anyone to go hungry,” presidential management staff head Cerge Remonde said in an interview on government-run radio station dzRB.
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Remonde said Arroyo did the whip-cracking last Friday during a meeting with agencies on hunger and poverty, less than a week after a Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showed hunger remained at 19 percent.
Another SWS survey showed 53 percent of families rate themselves as poor.
During Friday’s meeting, Remonde said Arroyo ordered the budget department to release P500 million for “hunger mitigation measures.”
Arroyo designated Health Secretary Francisco Duque III as the “point man” of the “hunger-mitigation” efforts, he added.
He also said the P500 million will go to food-for-work and food-for-parishes projects, and the controversial food-for-school program.
The food-for-school feeding program was the bone of contention between the Senate and the Lower House in approving the P1.126 trillion national budget for 2007, with senators suspecting the funds would go to politicking.
Apparently stung by the surveys, Arroyo “advised” Filipinos to scrimp on “luxuries.”
She then told a roundtable discussion that she had been a “victim of hunger” in past months.
Arroyo held yet another roundtable discussion Saturday morning in Malacañang, with Cabinet Secretary Ricardo Saludo and Onie Edejer, a village councilman of Barangay 645, Zone 67 in Barangay San Miguel near the Palace premises.
Edejer was vocal in claiming her village experienced no poverty and those who went hungry or poor were “lazy.”
“Those who say they are poor are plain lazy! If you can find a way to survive, poverty is not a problem,” she said.
Meanwhile, Malacañang insisted that the poverty incidence is improving under the Arroyo administration as its officials gave reporters their own interpretation of the SWS survey.
Saludo said the SWS survey, which illustrated that the poverty incidence rose from 52 percent in November 2006 to 53 percent in February 2007, proves a clear “overall decline” in the Self-Rated Poverty (SRP) because it showed the “SRP staying steady just above 50 percent.”
Saludo said based on SWS data, the average SRP during the Arroyo administration was the lowest at 57.3 percent, compared with that of former president Joseph Estrada at 59.6 percent, former president Fidel Ramos at 62.2 percent, and former president Corazon Aquino at 63.4 percent.
He claimed that the finding that SRP dropped in Metro Manila from 54 to 39 percent meant that the economy is improving and that this is being felt first in the National Capital Region.
Saludo said official data from the National Statistical Coordination Board showed that economic gains have cut poverty incidence from 27.2 percent or 25.5 million Filipinos in 2000 to 23 percent or 19.9 million Filipinos in 2006.
He said monthly spending among households that rate themselves as poor has also held steady and he attributed this to the expansion of social services, free elementary and high school education, health insurance, cheaper medicine, and low-cost Tindahan Natin outlets.
He was referring to the Self-Rated Poverty Threshold or the monthly budget that poor families need so as not to consider themselves poor, which has been sluggish. SWS said this means that poor families have been lowering their living standards, or tightening their belts.
The poverty threshold declined in Metro Manila from P12,000 in November to P10,000 in February.
Saludo claimed that the Annual Poverty Indicators Survey, which assesses the living standards of the poor in the bottom 30 to 40 percent in income showed steady gains in employment, education and health since 1999.
However, Saludo’s own data showed the number of children in grade school dropped from 92.2 percent in 2002 to 91.4 percent in 2004 and that the number of high school children was also reduced from 66.8 percent in 2002 to 63 percent in 2004.
He said this is due to the fact that many children wanted to go to school but actually could not.
Anyway, he said the 2004 figures are still lower than those in 1999 when 90 percent of children were in grade school and 57.6 percent were in high school.
Saludo and National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) director Dennis Arroyo said hunger rose in 2005 because of the oil crunch and that it still rose in 2006 because of the super typhoons that visited the country.
They claimed that the typhoons cut people in Luzon from their livelihood and many of them migrated to Metro Manila to try and find jobs but in vain.
They said this pushed hunger even more. (Sunnex)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (March 25, 2007 issue)
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