ANTI-POVERTY groups yesterday said
President Arroyo is in a "state of denial" for telling the
poor they should spend their income on basic needs instead of
on luxuries.
Marivic Raquiza, national coordinator of
Global Call to Action Against Poverty-Philippines, said
"Arroyo is living in a fantasy world."
"The poor and the socially excluded also
have the right to demand these basic needs. How dare she
(Arroyo) tell the poor not to enjoy these basic entitlements?"
she added.
Edwin Nacpil, chairman of Kasama-Pilipinas,
said these so-called luxuries help the poor "escape" from the
realities of poverty.
"If they will always think about their
plight, they might just storm Malacañang," he said.
Arroyo on Tuesday said the poor should
spend their income on basic needs so that they would have
enough to eat in reaction to the SWS quarterly survey which
showed that hunger remains at a record 19 percent since
November 2006.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye added that
the people should learn to cut down on "unnecessary
expenditures" like alcohol, cigarettes and prepaid cell phone
cards.
Raquiza said more than 50 percent of the
country’s workforce or roughly 16.1 million Filipino workers
are earning poverty wages.
Arze Glipo, executive director of
Integrated Rural Development Foundation, said "the official
national poverty threshold is P41 per person per day for food
and non-food needs… Forty-one pesos is way below the
international poverty threshold for middle-income countries
like the Philippines, which is at two dollars a day. This is
why we believe that the poverty incidence pegged at 30.4
percent of the population or 26 million Filipinos is widely
underreported."
GCAP-Philippines urged voters to make this
year’s vote a "vote for change" to stop the rising incidence
of hunger and poverty.
The anti-poverty groups proposed policies
that they said will improve the lives of the poorest of the
poor. These include supporting the completion of the
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program; increasing employment
opportunities; pushing for a P125 across the board wage
increase; increasing public investments in basic health,
education, water and sanitation; and repeal of the automatic
appropriation of debt payment.
Genuine Opposition senatorial candidate
Francis Escudero said Arroyo’s remark "is typical of a
president who does not realize the desperation of the poor and
therefore cannot empathize with them."
"Or if she does, she has to attribute the
problem to something other than her ill-conceived economic
policy," he added.
Escudero said Bunye is being insensitive to
suggest that a mother would deprive her child of milk and food
just to indulge on her vices.
Escudero said poverty is real and pervasive
and it is the fault of the administration, which has
dissipated scant resources through corruption and
extravagance.
"I can understand the anxiety of the
present government to explain away poverty, but blaming the
people themselves merely adds insult to injury," Escudero
said. "It’s like blaming the victim for his own murder."
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said
President Arroyo has ordered the National Anti-Poverty
Commission and agencies engaged in social services to review
anti-poverty measures so that economic gains could trickle
down to the people faster.
"Kailangan bilisan ang pagpapatupad ng programa katulad ng
bigas, school feeding program, pamilihin na dapat ay mas mura,
gamot na mas mura. Dapat meron tayong botika sa barangay,
palengke kung saan may special consideration sa mga presyo ng
pagkain," he said. – Reinir Padua, JP Lopez and Regina
Bengco
