Why over half of Pinoy families will remain hungry
Mike Banos
March 27, 2006
The Manila Times reported some time ago that nearly half of Filipino families are going hungry. Reporter Darwin G. Amojelar quoted a report from Gallup International?s Voice of the People 2005 survey which says that nearly half of all Filipino households have not had enough to eat in the last 12 months.
Gallup International interviews more than 50,000 people in more than 65 countries around the world, representing the views and attitudes of more than 1.3 billion human beings. The survey was conducted between May and July.
The Switzerland-based survey firm said 46 percent of Pinoy respondents declared that they and their families have not had enough to eat in the last year. Compare the RP figures with the worst findings in other continents: in Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon topped the most-hungry list with over half of their population saying they lacked food often or sometimes in the last 12 months. In Eastern and Central Europe, Ukraine is tops with 38 percent saying they were often hungry, while Greeks are worse off in Western Europe, with 18 percent admitting they often or sometimes had an empty stomach in the last 12 months against four percent for the entire region.
At 46 percent, the Philippines is on the high side of the world scale, (exceeded only by Nigeria and Cameroon in Africa with over 50 percent) another dubious distinction in our Hall of Shame. But those countries are already ecological disasters with hardly any natural resources much less agricultural lands needed to promote and sustain self-help among their people. Why then, can the Philippines with all its agricultural lands, seas and other natural resources have nearly half of its people going hungry?
Our situation is best summed up by the main character in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner? when he laments, ?Water, water, everywhere with not a drop to drink!?
In a recent article entitled ?Mission Impossible? published in ABS-CBN Interactive, Marit Stinus-Remonde, station manager of DYLA in Cebu and wife of our good friend Sec. Cerge Remonde notes: ?If so many Filipinos go hungry, if so many Filipinos settle in underdeveloped areas not being reached by government services, it is because they completely lack control over or access to productive resources that would enable them to support themselves sufficiently and in a more sustainable manner.?
This jibes perfectly with the observation of the majority of the Gallup International that poverty or the gap between rich and poor is considered the main problem facing the world. A quarter of the world population interviewed mentions poverty and/or the gap between rich and poor as the main problem the world currently faces, even more pressing that terrorism, unemployment, wars or conflicts.
With apologies to Cerg, it is a sad fact how past administrations, as well as the present one, have constantly mouthed ?people-empowerment? as the key to alleviating the country?s mounting poverty, but lip service and photo-ops of the president visiting and distributing goodies to voters in poor areas are hardly the stuff that can dent that problem.
As Marit succinctly puts it: ?If so many Filipinos go hungry, if so many Filipinos settle in underdeveloped areas not being reached by government services, it is because they completely lack control over or access to productive resources that would enable them to support themselves sufficiently and in a more sustainable manner.?
And why is that? Take agrarian reform, for instance. As so vividly demonstrated by Tita Cory?s Hacienda Luisita, it is one thing to pass the law, and another to implement it. Landowners and corrupt government officials have successfully sabotaged the CARP which would have given marginalized and poor farmers the means to sustain themselves.
With no land to support themselves, the rural poor has turned to the nearest available means of sustenance, and that?s why it?s not only illegal logging financed by the rich which are decimating our remaining forests but also ?carabao? logging from poor folks. Add politics : Why has Johnny Ponce-Enrile?s San Jose Timber Corp. been given the go-signal to resume logging in Samar, the dangers to flora and fauna, flash floods, and the displacement of indigenous Manobos bedammned?
As Marit again correctly notes, the remaining watersheds will come under tremendous additional pressure on top of illegal and carabao logging with the Arroyo administration?s thrust to attract foreign investments in mining. As ecological disasters in the Rapu-Rapu fiasco in the Albay Gulf and the Marcooper disaster in Marinduque have so graphically demonstrated, this government hardly has the capability, much less the political will, to ensure large-scale mining operations do not add to the already overpowering pressure on our environment and national patrimony.
Most tragic of all, it is the privileged few, and not the suffering Pinoy families who have not had enough food for the table in the last twelve months, who will profit from this rape of the wealth of the nation.
The same thing?s happening in the fishing industry: Small-scale and sustenance fishermen are increasingly being denied access to their traditional fishing grounds. This, on top of overfishing by commercial fishermen, industrial pollution of the seas and development aggression that?s destroying coral reefs and mangrove areas in the name of tourism and real estate development.
Tragically, it is often the local government, police and military which are used to keep these poor, marginalized fishermen in line for the foreign and rich domestic capitalists who don?t give a damn about the sustainability of their business nor its effects on the poor who depend on fishing for a living.
The Gallup poll is right: it is poverty or the gap between rich and poor that is the main problem facing the world. And terrorism, unemployment and wars/conflicts are all the consequences of this. Keep this in mind as you enjoy the daily bounty on your dinner table and pay homage to the people who perpetuate the system that make this tragedy possible.
INDNJC -
Gallup International interviews more than 50,000 people in more than 65 countries around the world, representing the views and attitudes of more than 1.3 billion human beings. The survey was conducted between May and July.
The Switzerland-based survey firm said 46 percent of Pinoy respondents declared that they and their families have not had enough to eat in the last year. Compare the RP figures with the worst findings in other continents: in Africa, Nigeria and Cameroon topped the most-hungry list with over half of their population saying they lacked food often or sometimes in the last 12 months. In Eastern and Central Europe, Ukraine is tops with 38 percent saying they were often hungry, while Greeks are worse off in Western Europe, with 18 percent admitting they often or sometimes had an empty stomach in the last 12 months against four percent for the entire region.
At 46 percent, the Philippines is on the high side of the world scale, (exceeded only by Nigeria and Cameroon in Africa with over 50 percent) another dubious distinction in our Hall of Shame. But those countries are already ecological disasters with hardly any natural resources much less agricultural lands needed to promote and sustain self-help among their people. Why then, can the Philippines with all its agricultural lands, seas and other natural resources have nearly half of its people going hungry?
Our situation is best summed up by the main character in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ?Rime of the Ancient Mariner? when he laments, ?Water, water, everywhere with not a drop to drink!?
In a recent article entitled ?Mission Impossible? published in ABS-CBN Interactive, Marit Stinus-Remonde, station manager of DYLA in Cebu and wife of our good friend Sec. Cerge Remonde notes: ?If so many Filipinos go hungry, if so many Filipinos settle in underdeveloped areas not being reached by government services, it is because they completely lack control over or access to productive resources that would enable them to support themselves sufficiently and in a more sustainable manner.?
This jibes perfectly with the observation of the majority of the Gallup International that poverty or the gap between rich and poor is considered the main problem facing the world. A quarter of the world population interviewed mentions poverty and/or the gap between rich and poor as the main problem the world currently faces, even more pressing that terrorism, unemployment, wars or conflicts.
With apologies to Cerg, it is a sad fact how past administrations, as well as the present one, have constantly mouthed ?people-empowerment? as the key to alleviating the country?s mounting poverty, but lip service and photo-ops of the president visiting and distributing goodies to voters in poor areas are hardly the stuff that can dent that problem.
As Marit succinctly puts it: ?If so many Filipinos go hungry, if so many Filipinos settle in underdeveloped areas not being reached by government services, it is because they completely lack control over or access to productive resources that would enable them to support themselves sufficiently and in a more sustainable manner.?
And why is that? Take agrarian reform, for instance. As so vividly demonstrated by Tita Cory?s Hacienda Luisita, it is one thing to pass the law, and another to implement it. Landowners and corrupt government officials have successfully sabotaged the CARP which would have given marginalized and poor farmers the means to sustain themselves.
With no land to support themselves, the rural poor has turned to the nearest available means of sustenance, and that?s why it?s not only illegal logging financed by the rich which are decimating our remaining forests but also ?carabao? logging from poor folks. Add politics : Why has Johnny Ponce-Enrile?s San Jose Timber Corp. been given the go-signal to resume logging in Samar, the dangers to flora and fauna, flash floods, and the displacement of indigenous Manobos bedammned?
As Marit again correctly notes, the remaining watersheds will come under tremendous additional pressure on top of illegal and carabao logging with the Arroyo administration?s thrust to attract foreign investments in mining. As ecological disasters in the Rapu-Rapu fiasco in the Albay Gulf and the Marcooper disaster in Marinduque have so graphically demonstrated, this government hardly has the capability, much less the political will, to ensure large-scale mining operations do not add to the already overpowering pressure on our environment and national patrimony.
Most tragic of all, it is the privileged few, and not the suffering Pinoy families who have not had enough food for the table in the last twelve months, who will profit from this rape of the wealth of the nation.
The same thing?s happening in the fishing industry: Small-scale and sustenance fishermen are increasingly being denied access to their traditional fishing grounds. This, on top of overfishing by commercial fishermen, industrial pollution of the seas and development aggression that?s destroying coral reefs and mangrove areas in the name of tourism and real estate development.
Tragically, it is often the local government, police and military which are used to keep these poor, marginalized fishermen in line for the foreign and rich domestic capitalists who don?t give a damn about the sustainability of their business nor its effects on the poor who depend on fishing for a living.
The Gallup poll is right: it is poverty or the gap between rich and poor that is the main problem facing the world. And terrorism, unemployment and wars/conflicts are all the consequences of this. Keep this in mind as you enjoy the daily bounty on your dinner table and pay homage to the people who perpetuate the system that make this tragedy possible.
INDNJC -
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