(Urban poor group belittles Aquino's newly-launched campaign) 'Pilipinas Natin Program sugarcoats PNoy's old broken promises, anti-poor policies,' says Kadamay

NEWS RELEASE | June 30, 2011

'Nothing new!'

This is how militant urban poor group, Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) describes the 'Pilipinas Natin Program,' the recent campaign of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III which has been launched in time for his first year anniversary today. The group said that they are sick and tired of hearing another re-packaged and sugarcoated program from the government that only includes nothing but old broken promises and compilation of anti-poor policies.

'What's sickening is that the Aquino administration has the guts to spend 'P5-million to P10-million' of tax payers' money while millions of Filipinos suffer more from hunger now than during the previous administration', Carlito Badion, Kadamay National Vice Chair quotes during a mass action in Manila. 'It clearly shows how insulated the current president is to the real and pressing condition of his people.'

Aquino leads the launching of Pilipinas Natin (Our Philippines) today in front of 8,000 youth leaders and multi-sectoral volunteers at the Philippine Sports Arena (formerly ULTRA) in Pasig City. According to the palace, Pilipinas Natin is a campaign for partnership between the government and the Filipino people for nation building, affirming the 'spirit of people power and volunteerism that gave President Aquino an overwhelming mandate to lead the country last year.'

Kadamay says otherwise as Pilipinas Natin only means 'a continuation of the onslaught of imperialist globalization that has kept the country in constant crisis.' “Ito ay pang-masang katawagan sa kanyang 5-taong Philippine Development Plan, na sa bandang huli ay magiging 'Pilipinas Nabitin' (It is the colloquial version of Aquino's 5-year Philippine Development Plan that in the end will be Philippines Wanting), Badion quips. “The plan misses the right solutions to the country's worsening poverty incidents especially among the urban poor,” he adds.

The militant group fears the presentation of PDP to be blinding. It sees nothing in Aquino's PDP that offers anything new in terms of strategies for more genuinely inclusive growth. While the plan further relinquishes government resposibilities to the private sector to provide essential public goods and social services, it is more concerned about a stable and profitable environment for big business, especially for foreign investors.

The group further critiques how the plan uses Conditional Cash Transfer (CCTs), the popular dole-out program of Aquino, as income-boosting cover up to how millions of Filipinos have been marginalized by globalization policies. "It is a short-term palliative solution to poverty and will fail to be "inclusive" as it covers a small fraction of the more than 90 million population needing a genuine anti-poverty program," Badion remarked.

The plan's design for the urban poor is that its intensified privatization of health, education and housing will make these services available only to those who can afford them. It intensifies regressive taxing by increasing taxes paid by the poor such as value-added taxes and sin taxes while avoiding taxing the rich.

During the first year of the Aquino regime, the trial implementation of PDP is already felt among the grassroots communities of urban poor. Thousands of informal settlers in Metro Manila have been thrown to far-flung relocation sites to give way for big businesses. While the CCTs give momentary relief to a very few lucky poorest of the poor, the constant price hikes of basic goods and transport fares make the situation unbearable.

“No wonder Aquino has become unpopular among the urban poor,” Badion adds. According to an SWS survey in April, Aquino receives the lowest satisfactory rating among the Classes D and E, as number of families that rate themselves as poor rise to 10.4 million. It is an increase of 3% from the 48% of the population during Arroyo's time. The first year of Aquino regime sees an increase in the incidence of hunger as well from 19.1% in 2010 to 20.5% of the population this year.

According to Ibon Foundation, an independent economic think tank, “ the Aquino administration's promise of change had become markedly less believable for many Filipinos as the first year of its term progressed. The retrogressive character of the PDP unfortunately affirms that the improvement in their lives and welfare that the people want will not be forthcoming from the government in the coming six years.”

Reference: Carlito Badion, Kadamay National Vice Chairperson (09393873736)