The Philippine Online Chronicles

Jason Pabalan, Jomar Banogan and Erwin Dolera from Payatas dumpsite were dragged to the limelight in 2001 after former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo presented them on her first State of the Nation Address (SONA).

They were handpicked to symbolize the Arroyo government's fight against poverty after paper boats with their wishes set forth at Pasig River reached Malacanang. Jomar asked for a fulltime job for his father, Jason wanted to finish college, while Edwin wished for the closure of Payatas dumpsite and a lot for his family.

The three, now, young adults, did not make it to Arroyo's publicity stunt highlighting its accomplishments. After nine years, is there hope for them under the new Aquino administration?

Curb unemployment

Unemployed Filipinos grew to 11.4 million in January 2010, 3.1 million more than in January 2001, according to independent think-tank Ibon Foundation. Data showed a sharp decrease in 2005 unemployment rate from previous years because of the adoption of new definition of unemployment which excludes those who are unemployed and are not looking for work. Still, government figures reveal that the unemployment rate for the period of 2001 to 2009 generally remained unchanged.

Under nine years of the Arroyo administration, 730,000 Filipinos were added to the army of the unemployed while 2.4 million additional underemployed were recorded.

Unemployment and underemployment should be at the top of the agenda of the Aquino administration said the urban poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay).

The group blames globalization for the rising unemployment in the country as it has removed government support for local producers and exposed the local economy to a lop-sided foreign competition in favor of wealthy countries.

Ibon foundation likewise points at obsolete globalization policies that have caused so much damage to the domestic economy as these policies put domestic producers at a disadvantage to foreign competition such as multilateral, regional and bilateral deals.

It advises a policy that should give the Filipino labor force a greater share of the products of their labors and real access to land, capital and government support. Active support and promotion of local Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to create jobs is seen as necessary steps in the policy formation.

Kadamay calls for the implementation of an immediate across-the-board daily wage hike of P125 for workers in the private sector. It also demands the legislation of a genuine agrarian reform which will solve the problem of landlessness that reinforces urban migration.

In the meantime, the new administration should review and revise the emergency employment program of the past administration towards generation of sustainable jobs with decent pay, Kadamay proposes.

For the first 100 days, Ibon recommends a multi-stakeholder review of how to provide necessaryprotection and support for local agriculture and industry.

Solve housing problem

The housing need for 2005 to 2010 is pegged at 3.7 million according to the computation of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).

Figures based on data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) actually show a very minimal allotment of 0.4 percent of the national budget for housing in 2010. This is equivalent to 16 centavos budget spending on housing as basic social service.

Government research institution Philippines Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) observed that the National Shelter Program (NSP) has only delivered 26 percent of its target, or less than 10 percent of the total housing need.

PIDS further admitted that the Urban Development and Housing Act (UDHA) of 1992 and the Comprehensive Shelter Finance Act (CISFA) of 1994, two supposedly pro-poor legislation, have not delivered housing on the scale or of the quality that is required.

As stated in the Medium-Term Philippine Development on Shelter, 2004-2010, the government concedes that state resources are limited when it comes to the housing question and most public programs tend to produce complete shelter packages largely unaffordable to the poor. Government strategy has been of expanding private sector participation in socialized housing finance and construction to make up for the limitation.

“The government housing agencies and the private sector collude,” according to Carlito Badion of Kadamay to “extract as much profits and kickbacks as possible from what is supposed to be a social service especially to the poor.”

Badion said that this stems from an “inherent flaw” in the social housing orientation of the government, in that it is driven by a “profit motive” in the provision of supposedly 'pro-poor' housing.

Public lands earmarked for development also result to massive displacement of poor families. Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction (COHRE) bestowed its Housing Rights Violator Award to the Philippines in 2006 for systematically violating housing rights and continually failing to abide by international legal obligations with regard to the modernization of Philippine National Railways.

Review of all urban development projects under the Arroyo administration in the light of each one's potential social impact as well as possible instances of corruption is one of the urban poor agenda Kadamay is proposing to Aquino.

Similar review is being asked of all housing and resettlement projects. It strongly calls for the indefinite moratorium on all demolitions and monthly amortization on all government housing programs until the reviews are concluded.

The residents of North Triangle in Quezon City (QC) trooped to Times St. where Aquino resides asking the president-elect to repeal the Executive Order Arroyo signed which earmarks the North and East Triangles to be developed into a mixed-use QC Central Business District (QC-CBD). About 35,000 residents are facing threats of demolition in San Roque in North Triangle.

With regard to UDHA, the urban poor group seeks its repeal specifically pointing out the provision for the Community Mortgage Program (CMP) as the predominant socialized housing scheme which is regarded to have failed in solving housing for the poor.

Housing for the poor should be a straight-up government service: built from public funds and provided to the poor as a matter of right is how Kadamay urges Aquino to address the lack of adequate housing for the poor.

Reduce hunger, eradicate poverty

An estimated 4 million families experienced involuntary hunger during the first quarter of 2010, according to Social Weather Station (SWS) survey conducted in March. Out of the figure, 533,000 families went through “severe hunger” defined as “often” or “always” experiencing hunger during the three months.

One third of 90 million Filipinos subsists on less than two US dollars. Despite low official poverty line by the government at P42 per person per day in 2006, poverty has continued to rise to reach 27.6 million over the same period.

Ibon Foundation notes that the latest available poverty data which are four years ago show trends before the global financial and economic crisis and natural calamities such as super typhoons 'Pepeng' and 'Ondoy' which could make the poverty incidence much higher.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said that the Philippines is lagging in terms of meeting the Millenium Development Goals (MDG) specifically on poverty reduction, particularly reducing Philippine poverty incidence by half by 2015. In the next four years, MDG targets a reduction to about 15 percent of the total population.

The campaign line “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” of Aquino is being criticized as deficient if used as framework in achieving genuine reform in the country as it is used as smokescreen to hide the failure of globalization policies causing the rising poverty in the country.

Local production of food has fallen making the economy more dependent on foreign sources of food. Rice imports increased 280 percent in 2008 from 639,000 tons in 2001. About 3 million children aged 0 to 5 years are underweight while three million children aged 6 to 10 years old are malnourished, according to Bulatlat.

For a start, Aquino is asked to repeal the much-criticized VAT Reform Law or RA 9377 which put 12 percent value added tax on items as basic as oil, water, food, and medicine. Cause-oriented groups argue that VAT as an indirect tax covering basic commodities affects the poor most as they have lower purchasing power.

Kadamay seeks the resumption of supply of National Food Authority (NFA) P18.25 kilo-priced rice to all public markets. In September 2008, the government-subsidized rice was pulled out of Metro Manila markets and was made available only to families with 'family access cards' distributed by the Department of Social Welfare Department (DSWD). The cheap rice were sold in rolling stores limiting access to the poor. The NFA rice priced at P18.25 was completely pulled out of the market eventually.

It also urges NFA for tighter measures to guard against price manipulation and selling of NFA rice at more expensive prices. Bulatlat reported that the NFA Employees Association (NFA-EA) stated that the price of wholesale imported rice per metric ton was more expensive than domestic rice from 1968 to 2008.

Socially-sensitive commodity - oil and other petroleum products put toll on Filipinos due to rising costs owing to price movements in the world market. Transport group Piston and other militant organizations have been calling for government regulation of the local oil industry with the repeal of the Oil Deregulation Law (RA 8479).

Deliver social services

Government spending on basic social services specifically education and health has been minimal. Ibon Foundation computations show government budget per Filipino per day is P6.85 for education and P1.10 for health while debt interest payments got the biggest increase in allocation.

The Arroyo government recorded the lowest health spending mark since the Aquino administration with an average of 1.8 percent. The allocation for health dropped by 7.4 percent from 2009. About 180 children die everyday due to easily preventable diseases.

Public spending for education averaged 2.7 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). About 4.7 million were out-of-school youth for school year 2008-2009 of which two million were elementary-age and 2.7 million were high school-age youth.

Ibon Foundation challenges the new administration to increase public spending on vital social services of education and health to improve the welfare of a crisis-battered population, GMA News online reported.

It specifically recommends the budget of at least P281 billion for education, P39 billion for health and P13 billion for housing in the 2011 national government budget to bring social services to their most recent respective annual peaks of education spending per school-age child (1998), health spending per capita (1997), and housing spending per capita (2000).

Payatas children's unanswered wishes

Jason is not in Payatas anymore,  his neighbors say he went home to his province in Visayas. Erwin now studies in Trinity College taking up Mass Communications but at his own cost. He still resides in Payatas. The small business package given to Edwin's father did not prosper and finally closed down. The allowances promised by Malacanang have stopped coming.

What they had been wishing for is real democracy that advances social progress as Ibon Foundation notes is a very basic need. Such society would give greatest priority to the right of the majority of Filipinos to work, education, health, housing and life. This is also what the urban poor want of the new Aquino regime.

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