(RPG-018) “WINNING AGAINST POVERTY”

We have been through this before. We have seen the mobs of EDSA III, we recognized them as the faces of poverty, and then we vowed to combat poverty no matter what. We are shocked by scenes that awaken our nation. Will we wake up one day to see the nightmare gone?

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Now we are shocked by stories of people committing suicide because of poverty. Just like EDSA III, we are now vowing to do something about it, but will we ever get around to it? As I see it, “ningas cogon” is a terrible tandem to a short national memory.

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How can we win against an enemy that we do not really know? What I mean by knowing the enemy is being able to know the numbers. The government says the poverty rate is only 30%, I say it is about 70%. Assuming that the government is telling the truth, this is already indirectly admitting that there are at least 24 million individuals in this country living in poverty.

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Comes now the report of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) that there are 11 million Filipinos living in extreme poverty, meaning that they are just trying to survive for less than 1 dollar (less than 50 pesos) a day. Does this mean that the balance of the government estimate (13 million) is surviving on more than 1 dollar a day?

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Good governance means having measurable targets, but these should be attainable in the first place. The government says it will cut poverty by half in eight years, in time for the deadline set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). How is it going to do that?

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On the practical side, each province should set its own poverty reduction target. By this, I do not mean poverty alleviation, just making sure because the distinction seems to escape many government people. Putting their money where their mouth is, the provincial Governors should tell us how they are going to achieve these targets, at the same time tell us how they are going to fund these massive undertakings.