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Kung dumarami ang MAHIRAP dumarami rin ang CORRUPT
Topic Started: Nov 21 2011, 02:34 AM (178 Views)
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Campaign slogan haunts AQU!N0
by Alvin Capino (Manila Standard Today)

President AQUIN0 III’s catchy campaign slogan which helped propel him to the presidency is now proving to be a problem.

People are now asking Mr. AQU!NO to deliver on his campaign promise that "Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap" (loosely translated, "if there’s no corruption, there is no poverty").

The problem of the AQUIN0 administration is that the poverty and hunger level is increasing. Going by the logic of his campaign slogan, does it mean that the level of corruption in the current administration is also rising?

The increase in the number of the poor and the hungry in the AQUIN0 administration is revealed in the survey first published in the newspaper Business World and conducted by the Social Weather Station (SWS) from September 4 to 7. It showed that 52 percent or some 10.4 million households considered themselves poor.

This figure represents an increase of 3 percentage points compared to the SWS June survey results, where the self-rated poverty figure was only at 49 percent or 9.8 million households.

The number of families who say they have suffered hunger has also increased from 36 percent (7.2 million households) in the SWS June survey to 41 percent in the September survey.

The increase of self-rated food poverty is most drastic in Luzon (except Metro Manila) which rose to 45 percent from a record low of 28 percent three months ago.

It should be noted that the Luzon self-rated food poverty results is the highest recorded in SWS surveys since June 2006.

The latest SWS survey also shows that one in five households or 21% of the estimated 4.3 million families nationwide experienced having nothing to eat in the last 3 months.

The hunger figures in the SWS September survey is the worst so far for the Aqu!no administration.

The SWS has explained that its survey covered both self-rated poverty and self-rated food poverty because "as a concept poverty allows for various degrees of deprivation." It said that "Those who suffer from hunger are much more deprived that those who simply suffer from poverty."

Among those suffering from food poverty the worst is those who say they suffer from severe hunger defined as having nothing to eat "often" or "always" in the last three months.

The incidence of severe hunger is highest in Metro Manila, according to the SWS survey where 6.3 percent of families say they have nothing to eat often or always.

The dilemma of the apologists of the AQUIN0 administration is that it’s getting hard to blame these unflattering survey results on poverty and hunger on the Arroyo administration.

Using the previous administration to cover up its shortcomings is becoming harder and harder for President AQU!NO and his horde of spokesmen after they marked their first year in office.

For the rise in poverty and hunger, they found another scapegoat. The AQUIN0 administration apologists have been heard saying that the recent typhoons and floods are the reasons that more people rate themselves poor and hungry.

Few people are accepting the typhoon/flood excuse of AQUIN0 spokesmen. In fact, the rise in self-rated poverty and hunger levels has triggered questions on the effectiveness of the flagship conditional cash transfer program of the AQU!N0 administration.

Social Welfare and Development Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman has bragged that the CCT program with a budget of P21 billion now covers more than 2.3 million poor families as of September this year. The obvious question being asked, however, is why this huge funding allocation has been ineffective in reducing self-rated poverty and hunger incidence.

Of course, Soliman can say that the figures could have been worse if they did not implement the expanded CCT program. But such a response would have been insulting to the people who are poorer and hungrier than the selected recipients of Soliman’s project.

Some 30 members of the House of Representatives including President AQU!N0's allies have signed a manifesto questioning the effectiveness of the CCT program and asking the AQUIN0 administration to review its implementation.

The manifesto describes the CCT as "a costly palliative, an unsustainable program of dole-outs that will perpetuate the politics of patronage and encourage a culture of mendicancy in the country."

The manifesto adds that the AQUIN0 administration should instead adopt a long-term strategy to address the root causes of poverty through asset redistribution and job generation.

The response of Soliman is predictable and expected. She defended the CCT saying that they are just following President AQU!N0's explanation that when a man is drowning, you throw him a life buoy and that is not the time to teach him how to swim. And of course, she asked for an increase in the CCT funding.

The DSWD budget is up for review in the Senate. Perhaps our senators can look into the possibility that corruption too have affected the CCT program and this is the reason why it has been less than effective in reducing poverty and hunger incidence in the country.

Remember "Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap" and since the ranks of the poor is increasing, there must be a rise in corruption too.

But even more alarming is the looming possibility that the CCT program like the controversial PEACe bond scheme of the group identified with Soliman and her husband will not only not alleviate poverty but in fact worsen it.

Remember the PEACEe bond scheme (some say it was a scam) concocted by Code-NGO so it can earn more than a billion to fund its social oriented projects? Under the scheme, the government issued P10 billion in bonds ten years ago which was redeemed by the government for P25 billion this year.

There is some similarity between the PEACe bonds and Soliman’s CCT because part of the funding of the CCT is coming from loans. The government is borrowing $400-million from the Asian Development Bank and $100 million from the World Bank to fund what is basically a dole program.

Like the PEACe Bonds, the funds going to the CCT program are loans and not grants. Sooner or later, the government would have to pay for them. Like the P25 billion balloon payment to the PEACe bond, the payment for the ADB and World Bank loans would have to be borne by the taxpayers again.

Borrowing money for unproductive dole seems to be a bad idea. But under the AQUIN0 administration, what else is new?
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