I my past blogs, I described the negative effects of malignant and pervasive poverty in the Philippines, which to this very day continue to harm, enervate, debilitate and demoralize the hopeless and oppressed Filipinos in relation to the fair, just, speedy, and inexpensive administration of justice in the Philippines.
I wish to share below a recent letter to the editor published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer detailing the extent of Philippine poverty vis-a-vis Philippine oligarchy.
‘Flawed judgment’ confirmed
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Opinion Section (Letters to the Editor)
First Posted 01:13:00 09/09/2009
This is a reaction to the column of Amando Doronila titled “Flawed judgment.” (Inquirer, 08/19/09) In that piece, he said that “In many an assessment of the legacy of the Arroyo presidency, the concrete achievements in the economy and infrastructure development are diminished by the glaring downsides in the areas of governance, human rights violations, and abuse of power.”
I would like to substantiate such statement with certain data. The NSCB data show that poverty incidence has leveled off at 33 percent— 32.9 percent during the period 2000-2006, yet the GDP grew by 4.4 percent in 2000 to 7.3 percent in 2007, which is the highest in 31 years. This is explained by the fact that the economic strategy is focused more on the industrial and service sectors and has neglected agriculture on which the poor are largely dependent.
An Ibon Foundation report, titled “Sona 2001 revisited: Performance against targets” (Inquirer, 7/26/09), noted that “the net income of the Top 1,000 corporations in the Philippines increased 490 percent between 2001 and 2007—from P116 billion to P686 billion. In 2006, the net worth of the 20 richest Filipinos—including close Arroyo allies Lucio Tan, Enrique Razon Jr., Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. and Enrique Aboitiz—was P801 billion ($15.6 billion), which was equivalent to the combined income for the year of the poorest 10.4 million Filipino families. (Forbes Asia, NSCB)
The above economic data, which are reflective of a situation unfavorable to the majority of the Filipino people, directly correlate with the downside in governance performance. The World Governance Indicators (WGI), released by the World Bank, measures how more than 200 countries fared in the six dimensions of governance; a percentile ranking of 100 percent is the highest while a percentile ranking of 0 percent is the lowest. For the second year period 2000-2008, there is a significant reduction in the percentile ranking of the Philippines: for political stability and absence of violence the country received percentile ranking of 41 to 11; for voice and accountability: 59 to 41, and control of corruption: 42 to 27.
The studies conducted in several countries have shown that poverty and falling income are critical drivers toward violent conflict. It is only by changing the current economic and political situation into a better one through broad-based approach in making policies and decisions that we will ensure the end of violent conflicts happening in depressed and poor areas of the country.
—EDMUNDO ENDEREZ,
edenderez@yahoo.com
See:
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/letterstotheeditor/view/20090909-224321/Flawed-judgment-confirmed
