One of the recent buzzes on social media was that government’s\nCOVID-19 response seemed to unfairly prioritize the poor. Some netizens alleged\nthat the poor will only use the money to buy alcoholic drinks, to get a\npedicure, or to get their hair done. Others also remarked that the poor don’t\ndeserve the help because it is their choice to be poor anyway. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But doesn\u2019t the plight of the poor tell us that something is wrong\nwith the way things are and needs fixing? That relief for millions of\nvulnerable households is still taking too long to arrive now that there is a\npublic health emergency bares government\u2019s long-standing unconcern for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Who are the poor? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n There are millions of poor Filipinos, and I doubt that many of\nthem chose to be that way. The breadwinners, for instance, of poor to\nlow-income families in Luzon that are quite vulnerable during the COVID-19\nlockdown, would probably be mostly informal earners. According to IBON, they\nare half the island’s labor force: vendors, shopkeepers, service workers\n(including salespersons), construction workers, farmers, farm workers, fisherfolk,\npedicab, trike, jeepney and truck drivers, and transport sector mechanics,\nmanufacturing, and hotel and restaurant employees. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reviewing official figures, national poverty incidence for the\nfull year of 2018 was at 16.6% of population. Though it is said to be a\nreduction from the 23% poverty incidence in 2015, that still means some 17.6\nmillion poor Filipinos of the total population in 2018 falling below the\npoverty threshold of Php10,727 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n IBON considers the said 16.6% to be in extreme poverty, since the\npoverty standard is too low. The monthly threshold is supposed to be 70% for\nfood and 30% for non-food needs (such as water, electricity, internet,\ntransportation, health, house rental, and education), but many contest that the\namount is barely enough. It also turns out that a lot of families don’t meet\nIBON’s estimated National Capital Region family living wage (which government\nstopped computing in September 2008). This is around Php1,027 per day or the\namount needed for a family of five to decently get by. About 12.4 million of\nsome 22 million families live on not more than Php132 per person per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The COVID-19 lockdown underscored the breadth of poverty in the\ncountry. IBON counts 7.5 million poor to low-income families living on only up\nto Php21,000 monthly in Luzon, and about 4.8 million lower-middle and\nmiddle-middle- income families. Recognizing the vulnerability that the military\nlockdown has put the people in, government even announced that it will give\nemergency subsidies to 18 million households, or the poorest 3\/4 of the\npopulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Assistance though has not come for many going on the sixth week of\nthe enhanced community quarantine. But it’s not like the poor, lower-income and\nmiddle class families \u2013 though in varying degrees \u2013 are only needing help now\nthat there\u2019s a pandemic. Poverty has long been here. We are anxious about how\nCOVID-19 can cripple us all the more due to our nation’s miserable state to\nbegin with. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For one, a huge portion of work is temporary if not outright\nirregular and low-paying. Employment is up but most of new jobs are poor\nquality. For instance, in the January 2020 Labor Force Survey, part-time work\nincreased by 2.3 million, surpassing the 1.6 million jobs created in the same\nperiod. This has been rooted in the absence of strong agriculture and\nmanufacturing industries that can generate decent-paying and secure work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not just about the income<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the United Nations, “Poverty entails more than\nthe lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods.\nIts manifestations include hunger and malnutrition, limited access to education\nand other basic services, social discrimination and exclusion, as well as the\nlack of participation in decision-making.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not only during the coronavirus lockdown that we are seeing\npoor and low-income families who are the most at risk of hunger or illness.\nLong before COVID-19, they have been earning too little to be able to save.\nPeople\u2019s access to their basic needs regardless of income have also long been\nundermined by the commercialization of services and utilities. Data on\nchildren\u2019s nutrition, and access to health, education, housing, and water and\nsanitation show how higher income levels have greater access to these\nessentials compared to the poor and lower-income families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Food and Nutrition Research Institute reported that 53.9% of\nhouseholds are food insecure as of 2018. Additionally, the percentage of\nchildren aged 6-10 years old that experienced wasting, stunting, and being\nunderweight in the same year was at 7.6%, 24.5%, and 25%, respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, according to the 2017 National Demographic and Health\nSurvey (NDHS), only 68% of the household population had some form of health\ninsurance coverage. The average cost of private facilities\u2019 health care\n(Php33,191) was almost triple that of public facilities (Php11,627).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Department of Education figures show that in 2018, net enrolment\ncompared to school-age population was 76.5% in kindergarten, 94.1% in\nelementary, going down to 81.4% in junior high school, and lower at 51.2% in\nsenior high. Government think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies\n(PIDS)\u2019 discussion paper titled \u201cProfile and Determinants of the Middle-Income\nClass in the Philippines\u201d cites the 2017 Annual Poverty Indicators Survey\n(APIS) in showing that among the poor, lower income and lower middle-income\nfamilies, only 1 percent, 3 percent, and 12 percent, respectively, attend\nprivate and public schools. Meanwhile, among the \u201cmiddle\u201d middle, upper middle,\nupper and rich income classes, 42 percent, 61 percent, 63 percent, and 51\npercent, respectively, attend private and public schools. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The PIDS paper likewise notes that nationwide, 18% of poor\nhouseholds, 40% from the lower income, and 31% from the lower income, are\ninformal settlers. Of the upper and rich income classes, meanwhile, 88% have\ntheir own or owner-like possession of housing units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for electricity, 73% of the poor on one hand, and 100% of the\nupper income and rich classes on the other hand, have access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With regard to water services, only 25% of the low-income group\nsource their water supply from their own faucets or community water system. The\nproportion of the middle income group availing the same is at 62.7%, while it\nis 85% for the high income group. The rest of low-income households have to get\nwater from shared community water systems, deep, shallow, and dug wells,\nprotected and unprotected water bodies, and peddlers. The 2017 NDHS also\nreports that sanitation for 22.5% of households is still unimproved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Economy, governance for whom? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The situation of the people indicates whether government and the\neconomy is working for them as expected. Currently, it is clearly working for\nthe wealthiest: the richest 5% of Filipino families account for one fourth of\ntotal family income in the country, equivalent to the combined income of the\npoorest 53 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That governance and the economy work for the many is as much the\nconcern of the middle class as it is of the more marginalized low-income or\npoor. Are our production sectors independent, in good health, and enabling\ndecent jobs and incomes? Is development pursued in harmony with the\nenvironment? Is everybody getting their taxes\u2019 worth with ample available food,\npeople-oriented and national development-geared education and health care, and\nsufficient, quality and affordable public utilities? Are taxes progressively\nsourced, obliging the wealthy to shell out more than those who are not? And is\nthere freedom of information, of speech, of assembly, of religion, and are the\npeople able to participate in decision making? Are people\u2019s proposals for\nsolutions and alternatives heeded? \u201cYes\u201d would be the answer to these questions\nif People Economics <\/a>were pursued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Make it for the many<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A relative recently remarked that the difference between citizens\nand nations having it better in the time of COVID-19 is the leadership\u2019s\nattitude towards its people. For example, in Vietnam, health systems are\naugmented, COVID-19 cases are minimized and spread is arrested, quarantines are\neffective, and assistance to the vulnerable is delivered. Observers say that\nVietnam and some of Metro Manila local government units (LGUs) have the\naforementioned in common. Unfortunately,\nwe haven\u2019t seen these with the national government nor even with my own\nmunicipality (zero social amelioration program noted so far, I hope we\u2019re just\nbehind in the news). Having a decisive leadership – that consults with experts,\nmakes a comprehensive plan and musters resources despite the odds for expedient\naction – can immediately benefit the public. This is the kind of leadership\nthat relies on both the constituents\u2019 discipline and compassion towards one\nanother to work out solutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, government insists on military-led containment and\nrepeatedly says that they\u2019ve got it: health response is on track, help for the\nvulnerable is on its way, and the economy started strong so it can quickly\nrecover. Sadly, government wants to do things the old way, emergency or not\napparently. It is that old way that has that kept the majority of us poor, made\nthe super-rich richer, and the economy hollow and unable to stand on its own. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It can start changing those old ways by letting all concerned citizens \u2013 regardless of class \u2013 contribute into the various bright albeit painstaking work of our health and other sector frontliners, and initiatives of civil society. These include even lockdown-challenged farmers, workers\u2019, women and youth groups delivering services of all sorts where needed. They have relentlessly pushed for new ways to help, pandemic or not. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" BIRD FEED<\/p>\n Doesn\u2019t the plight of the poor tell us that something is wrong with the way things are and needs fixing? That relief for millions of vulnerable households is still taking too long to arrive now that there is a public health emergency bares government\u2019s long-standing unconcern for them.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":9436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-withbanner.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"saved","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[2048,2049],"tags":[2199,2218,347,2251,116,598,2247,159,2248,2249,309],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9435"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9504,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9435\/revisions\/9504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}