By Bingo Dejaresco III
It is not our imagination, folks. It is the United Nation's Food Council who drew the number.
There are one billion hungry men in Planet Earth today. One of six earthlings suffer from malnutrition today. Last year in 2008, there were only 915 million recorded hungry earthlings then.
War and political instability, drought and food crisis had brought this tragedy to us. When food production stabilized late last year, the global financial crisis however, in turn, lowered income levels and prejudiced access of men to food instead.
This, aside from the fact, that food prices in the world had really effectively increased by 24%, a hot ratio, from 2006 to 2008.
Malnutrition means a person receives less than 1,800 calories a day. This depravity, according to the UN, caused food riots in 30 countries recently. Malnutrition leads to slow death in that it weakens the immune system against battling germs that cause sickness and diseases.
Malnutrition kills man softly.
The hungry reside mostly in Asia and the Pacific region (where the country is) at 642 million, up by 10% from last year. The other bigger chunk comes from Africa at 265 million. Together they total 805 million hungry folks, about 80% of the world's total.
The trend has been noted in the country as well.
According to the World Bank PDF, poverty incidence in the country had decelerated but increased again during the recent years.
At the waning years of the dictator Marcos, the country's poverty incidence was at a high of 41% which Cory brought down to 34.3% at the end of her term in 1991. FVR even succeeded to scale this down further into 25% at the end of his term in 1997.
GMA's ascension into office started with a 26% poverty incidence in 2003 and unfortunately rose again to 28% back in 2006. Twenty-four of 100 were poor in 2003; now 27 of 100 in 2006.
In the period 2003 to 2007, fuel, light and water cost escalated by a high 53%, transportation and communication by 50%, food by 21% and Education by 29%, according to the government's National Statistical Coordination Board. All these price increases make people poorer if their income remains stagnant.
There are, of course, more poor found in the rural than urban areas.
But the urban symbol of FVR's fight against poverty - Mang Pandoy - is now dead.
Although he was given a job to support a family, the approach was far from holistic. The job may have given Mang Pandoy the basic nutrition needed.
However, the money for medicines or insurance for health when he got sick, water and sanitation, shelter, passable education and perhaps peace and order were not necessarily in order.
Mang Pandoy's life perhaps puts into framework the government's piece-meal approach to poverty alleviation which must necessarily cover the entire family's basic minimum requirements.
Staying alive, no matter how John Travolta gyrates, is not the end all of a Filipino's existence.
He must have medicine when he gets sick, clean water, decent house that doesn't leak when it rains, educated enough and live in a peaceful community for Juan de la Cruz to continue "staying alive."
While the water projects and livelihood opportunities accorded by the NAPC (National Anti-Poverty Coordinator) and the free and subsidized training of livelihood programs at the TESDA these days are very good initiatives, the non-income aspect of Mang Pandoy's continued existence must be as importantly and urgently addressed.
For a family of five in Metro Manila, it needs P8,550 per month in income to stay out of poverty; slightly less for the entire country and less urban centers at P6,274 per month income.
The global financial nightmare has complicated the situation.
The deficit has ballooned to P252 billion and increased the deficit: GDP ratio to 3.2 from 2.0 two years earlier. It has not been healthy - with the government resorting to escalated borrowings - including the contemplated $1.5-billion "Samurai Bonds" announced last week in Japan's visit of GMA. That had to be resorted, because revenue sources from BIR and Customs are primarily down due to lower economic activities.
That is certainly going to worsen the P4.3-trillion National Debt nightmare. Today up to 30% of the National Budget is eaten up to merely servicing the debt.
That by itself deprives Juan de la Cruz of many infrastructure and goodies for normal living.
The BSP had tried to use monetary policy, after the government's fiscal failure, to influence inflation in the matter of interest rates and money supply - in its bid to keep inflation down. Inflationary forces hurt the poor more who cannot afford any upward escalation of consumer prices.
Will there be stagflation - a grim scene of business giving up hope and reducing business activities? Low supply and low demand combining into a lethal combination?
It is a dangerous possibility. It is best that our government and the banking system do not panic and exacerbate the thin sense of confidence of people in anything and maybe even any one these days.
Two weeks ago, we editorialized with a warning that perhaps, despite government rah-rah boys, the Philippines might really slip into recession.
All the major papers yesterday, carried the story that the World Bank itself now confirmed that recession is setting in the Philippines.
This apocalyptic forecast make us shudder in our seats - that given the present hunger situation in many parts of the world and the country, the roller coaster ride is taking a lot longer at the bottom now. It is frigging bad.
We don't want to hear more stories like that of Mang Pandoy - many of them not reaching the pages of the newspapers, or the airwaves through television and the radio.
The Government's top priority now must be alleviation of poverty and keeping the dirty angry wolf called Hunger away from Juan de la Cruz' doorstep.
We need all the prayers and good luck wishes we can muster. Let's start now.
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