WILL YOU STILL WALK THROUGH THE DARK PATH?

WILL YOU STILL WALK THROUGH THE DARK PATH?

Nearly all those who review the growth achieved in the economy the past three years all point to the increasing dependence on Filipinos working overseas. On a bad month, the foreign remittances are still equivalent to the total foreign capital that enters the country for the entire year.)

Noynoyed for 3 yearsWritten by  Tribune Editorial
Friday, 26 April 2013

Noynoy the past few days had been touring the country with his Team PNoy candidates, or at least those who care to tag along with him in the sorties.

A fair question for asking is why Noynoy is in the campaign trail with just one or two administration bets when he should be in Malacañang addressing the nation’s concerns, foremost of which is the recently reported persistent poverty that has failed to be reduced under his administration.

It has been three years since he assumed the presidency and his own spin for inclusive growth remains a dream.

Noynoy appears to be moving about not entirely to get the pulse of Filipinos but also the feel of some Filipina damsels willingly paraded by local officials for the bachelor president.

That is what has been Noynoy’s cycle for the past three years: A lot of rhetoric on daang matuwid in the morning, spiced with photo ops in some part of the country and mate hunting at night.

It has also been noted that whenever a negative report that directly affects him and his administration which would generally show up as lies of his “good governance” and daang matuwid spiels as nothing but rhetoric, he is suddenly reported as dating a new girl—all done to divert the issue, this time, on the unchanged poverty report, despite the tens of billions he pours into the hands of  his Department of Social Welfare and Development secretary, Dinky Soliman and the conditional cash transfer (CCT) doleouts.

No wonder 30 million Filipinos of those who supposedly voted for him in the 2010 elections in the hope of a better life, remain poor and are probably stuck in the poverty trap until the end of Noynoy’s term.

Name one economic policy shift of Noynoy that addresses the lack of jobs the past three years. There is none. The generation of employment, or the absence of it under Noynoy, nonetheless, is the biggest factor for the persistent poverty.

Had the P40 billion in the budget for the CCT program, which are given as doleouts, been invested into development of hard industries such as a loan pool for businesses with huge employment potentials, the poverty rate may have improved in the three years he has been in office.

Nearly all those who review the growth achieved in the economy the past three years all point to the increasing dependence on Filipinos working overseas. On a bad month, the foreign remittances are still equivalent to the total foreign capital that enters the country for the entire year.

Hot money is pouring in, primarily through the stock market but that is  money which ships out of the country whenever there are better speculative opportunities somewhere in the world.

The stock market index had zoomed to 7,000 points which was a level not even dreamt of by brokers three years ago but despite the hype on the bull run, only a handful of Filipinos invest in the equities market.

The cycle of economic development under Noynoy, thus is confined to a tight sphere of the population while those in its fringes do not even feel a solitary ripple from it.

Those outside Noynoy’s economic circle need to fend for themselves and maybe become part of Filipino diaspora to survive.

The number is appalling, 30 million Filipinos subsist on less than P40 a day or about P200 daily for an average family of five based on a government survey.

The subsistence income of the 30 million Filipinos for a day is equivalent to one swig of a bottle of beer of Noynoy in his daily hops throughout the country.

Three years and nothing has changed, and three more years on it would not be any different.

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