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July 25, 2010

Ensure no pinoy left behind – social watchers tell P-Noy

Ensure that no Pinoy will be left behind by the P-Noy administration’s poverty eradication efforts. This was the call of Social Watch Philippines (SWP) leaders from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao representing indigenous peoples, Muslims, women’s groups, farmers, fishers, teachers and local nongovernment organizations as President Noynoy Aquino delivers his first ever State of the Nation Address (SONA).

“Our bottomline is those at the bottom. These are millions of absolutely poor and absolutely hungry Filipinos who will be left behind even if we achieve the development targets as embodied in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),” said former national treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones, SWP lead convenor.

“The magnitude of poor Filipinos is staggering. There would still be millions of hungry people here even if we achieve the target of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015. Ending poverty of half of the 27.6 million poor Filipinos will still leave us with millions who are still hungry and neglected,” explained Isagani Serrano, President of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement.

“Those who will be left behind are the most vulnerable Filipinos such as indigenous peoples, women, small farmers and fishers. They are those living in the poorest towns which are mostly in Mindanao,” Serrano added.

“P-Noy, in his SONA, should promise not to sacrifice social development for deficit reduction. There are still untapped resources of revenue such as the perks, exemptions and benefits granted by Congress to the private sector and income of government-owned and controlled corporations,” Briones said. “All that is needed is P-Noy’s political will and commitment,” she added.

P-noy’s administration has announced that there will be austerity measures. Let there be austerity in foreign trips, overpriced projects and overlapping programs. But there should be more spending for education, health, agriculture and the environment.
Lasconia Enoch, chairman of the Mamata, Malumdeni, Makilala Tribal Association, based in North Cotabato, said that government’s big projects for social development do not usually reach the Indigenous Peoples’ communities. “We hope that P-Noy would talk of genuine empowerment for IPs in his first SONA. We IPs have always felt that we are invisible to the eyes of the national government -- often not consulted and sidelined in matters of setting priorities and governance,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rebecca Batil, treasurer of the Mamata tribe association, said that P-Noy could prove that he is pro-poor by talking of budget for IPs during his SONA. “Through SWP, we learned that bigger budgets for social programs for the IPs would prove that P-Noy has a heart for the IPs; and that we can and should participate in determining financing priorities for our own sector” she said.

Similarly, Manuel R. Badon, chapter president of the Unity for the Advancement of Sustainable Development and Good Governance (USWAG) in Baao, Camarines Sur, stressed that P-Noy should take the SONA as an opportunity to command local governments to institutionalize people’s participation in governance. “We are more than willing to help the President ensure that his programs reach the poorest of the poor by serving as watchdogs of government projects in our community simply because we do not want to be left behind,” Badon said.

In Negros Oriental, Siliman University history professor Renante Lingkong said that one key strategy is for President Aquino to change priorities for education. “It should be quality of education and teachers’ training above infrastructures,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mario Limocon, director-general of the local nongovernment organization Process-Bohol, said the P-Noy’s SONA should also be a promise that the Philippines will be self-reliant on rice; that there will be more subsidies for small fishers; that he will fund the laws that protect small fishers from commercial fishers; and that there would be support for and national recognition of the important roles of women’s groups at the community level.

Edelina Arbas, Sectoral Desk Coordinator of Dumaguete City said that P-Noy should address massive poverty through income-generating and livelihood programs instead of relief and short-term programs.

“We ask P-Noy to ensure that no one will be left behind by implementing an MDG-sensitive and climate-change resilient national budget. The Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan, on which the national budget should be aligned to, should be based on the MDGs and the National Climate Adaptation Plan,” said Serrano.

MDGs refer to the set of time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty by 2015. This includes addressing income poverty, hunger, disease and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. P-Noy’s regime will have to ensure that the country achieves the MDGs within the next five years up to the 2015 deadline.  ^ Back to top

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