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July 21, 2002
Social Watch Philippines to PGMA: Effective management of public finances, not subsidies, will solve hunger Social Watch Philippines (SWP), the Philippine chapter of the international Social Watch, called on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to start effectively managing the country’s finances instead of providing short term solutions such as subsidies so that she can save millions of Filipino families from hunger. Reacting to a Social Weather Station survey that there was a significant increase in the number of times that 2.9 million Filipino families go hungry in a span of three months, SWP lead convenor and former national treasurer Leonor Briones reiterated SWP’s dismay over PGMA’s cash transfer program, saying it is only a one-shot strategy that only ensures political gains. “The power of poor people’s money to buy food diminishes as inflation continues to rise and cause the swelling prices of rice, food items and oil,” Briones said. The members of Social Watch Philippines said that PGMA can begin effective economic management by starting with being truthful on the state of the Philippine economy and the plight of the Filipino people. “PGMA said that she fulfilled her promises in solving hunger and poverty by achieving 90 percent rice self-sufficiency from 2001-2007, 4,000 farm to market roads, and 146,117 new irrigation systems. Yet, data from National Statistics Coordinating Board (NSCB) reveal that 12.2 million Filipinos are food poor and 27.6 million are below the poverty threshold,” Briones said. “Moreover, the President said that she fulfilled her promise of creating 9 million jobs from 2001 to 2008. Yet, data from the Bureau of Labor and Employment Statistics (BLES) shows that unemployment rate is now at eight percent with 2.9 million jobless people. A total of 168 million net jobs were lost since April last year,” she added. SWP warned that many will go hungry if the Government does not begin implementing long term solutions and focusing on social development. “Whatever gains have been erased by rising prices of oil, food and basic commodities. What matters in governance is not the output per se but its impact on the lives of the people,” Briones said.
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