PRESS RELEASE l 16 Nov 2011
KALIPUNAN NG DAMAYANG MAHIHIRAP
FOR INTERVIEW: Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary-general (09213927457)
MANILA, Philippines--The recent SWS survey reveals than 52% of the respondents -- equivalent to an estimated 10.4 million households -- consider themselves “ mahirap” or poor, up from 49% (9.8 million) in June.
Those who rate themselves as poor in terms of food are up from 36% (7.2 million) three months earlier to 41% (8.2 million families). Accordingly, the SWS said households again tightened their belts.
"The data is tantamount to qualify Philippines as one of the 'food-poor' or hungry nations in the world, despite the fact that we have an agricultural economy," said Gloria Arellano, Kadamay national secretary-general.
Self-rated poverty rose by nine points to 62% in rural areas and stayed at 43% in towns and cities. The Palace has primarily been blaming on the impact of two recent typhoons that hit the country during the period of the study, foreseeing that results for the fourth quarter could be worse given damage caused by Pedring in September.
“How to further insulate country from such shocks? Better planning, more realistic conditions, simpler methods of production,” said Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte.
Kadamay contested Malacanang's statement and said that no high popularity rating of the president can cover up the hungry stomach of his people. "The condition of the toiling masses has been getting worse, with or without typhoons to hit the countries," said Arellano. "Primarily because the government is not keen to addressing the real issue of poverty, with a dole-out system and a faulty agrarian reform program leading the list of poverty alleviation programs," she added.
"If very farmer has a decent parcel of land, with a harvest enough to feed his family, earn for a living and still have some saving for his family's other needs and for emergency purposes, not a single family will go hungry and consider themselves as poor," said Arellano. "The same is through if our workers in the urban centers receives enough wages from their employers," added the leader.
“How to further insulate country from such shocks? Better planning, more realistic conditions, simpler methods of production,” Valte said.
"The president may not have yet experienced an incident of involuntary hunger in his lifetime, to feel the situation of millions of his people. Take the case of the contested Hacienda Luisita land. Rather than siding with the hungry farm workers, he stayed silent on the Supreme Courts' ruling to take away the land that is already being tilled by the farmers. It seems the palace does not care at all," Arellano said.
"Eight years after the tragic Hacienda Luisita massacre of the farm workers of the Cojuangco-Aquino plan who demand for land so their family won't go hungry, it seems the Aquino administration is not heading the right direction towards poverty-alleviation," said Arellano. "We are demanding for a paradigm shift on the government's poverty-alleviation and agrarian reform programs. We demand for the immediate distribution of lands owned by big landlord-politicians to the millions of hungry farmers in the country side. We demand for a meaningful wage increase to our workers, and regular jobs to those who are unemployed."
"The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Extension with Reforms (CARPEr) and the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program have already done their functions, just to show that the government cares for its citizens. But no paying of lip-service can calm the social unrest in the rural and the urban that is propelled by the widespread poverty and hunger," ended Arellano. ###
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