| Editorial: |
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| Ending poverty should be the main goal |
| 'Pababa ang kahirapan [Poverty is declining],” President Arroyo said in her speech last week during the inauguration of the P745.5-million Domalandan Bridge that links Dagupan City and Lingayen in Pangasinan to the western parts of the province. The President pointed out that during the first half of her term, the number of families living below poverty line went down to 24 percent from 28 percent in 2000. Forgive us if the latest presidential pronouncement of a 4-percent decline in poverty levels during the first five years of her term, that is, from 2001 to 2005, doesn’t exactly excite us enough to make us ecstatic. What worries us is that a mere 4 percent of the poor have been emancipated from poverty in the past five years, and given this performance, we can expect just another 4 percent to be freed from the clutches of deprivation until the end of her term in 2010. If the antipoverty program proceeds at such a snail’s pace, then it is perfectly understandable that we should raise questions as to whether this government is really making a dent on the poverty situation in the country amid its claims of much improved economic conditions. If we’re not mistaken, recent surveys indicate that roughly half of the population consider themselves poor. And if we’re to believe other surveys indicating that many Filipinos go hungry every day, then we have a far worrisome picture from what the President says. In other words, we have here a yawning gap between official claims and survey results that keeps us wondering whom we should believe. To be sure, there’s enough good news on the economic front that gives us ample cause for optimism that things will be better this year. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas revealed on Friday that the country’s gross international reserves (GIR) in 2006 reached $23 billion, beating the government target of $22 billion. The end-2006 GIR level is $4.51 billion more than what was recorded in 2005, a surge attributed to accumulated reserves from huge dollar inflows in 2006. The current level of reserves was accumulated despite the prepayment of the country’s $220 million remaining loan from the International Monetary Fund, and another prepayment of $72 million worth of assorted loans from the Asian Development Bank. The year-end GIR—equivalent to four times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 2.3 times based on residual maturity—would be enough to cover about 4.4 months worth of imports of goods and payments of services and income, according to the BSP. The country’s balance of payments (BOP) position—the sum of all the trade in goods and services—also improved last year. While the BSP has yet to disclose the December BOP, the November position has already bested the projected $2.8-billion BOP position for 2006. The country’s 11-month BOP surplus of $3.138 billion was higher than the $2.134-billion BOP surplus recorded over the same period last year. The surplus shows that the country has more than enough foreign reserves to meet all of its foreign currency-denominated obligations. Meantime, the national government’s budget deficit for 2006 is likely to settle at P81 billion, better than the projected P125 billion set under the fiscal program last year. This would be the fourth straight year of decline, and that is a plus on the government’s balance sheet last year. Viewed in the context of the continuing appreciation of the peso, the surge in the stock market, increased revenue collection, and record levels of remittances by overseas Filipino workers, the other macroeconomic fundamentals, including the all-time high in our foreign exchange reserves, the surplus in our balance of payments and the reduction in our budget deficit all point to better prospects in 2007. But while these are clear economic gains, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. These gains should translate to immediate benefits to those living on the edge of poverty. They should translate to a better life for poor Filipinos in the long-term, and not just fatten up the bank accounts of those already enjoying the wealth of this country. One recalls that after she took her oath of office in January 2001, Mrs. Arroyo said in her inaugural speech that she would work to eliminate poverty in the country by the end of the decade, or by 2010. That deadline disturbed not a few Filipinos, because the 1987 Constitution says that the President should serve for only six years, and she was saying then that she intended to remain in office until 2010, or a good 10 years in Malacañang. But maybe that should be of no import now; what matters is that she delivers on her promise. Last week, Mrs. Arroyo assured the public that the political noise that goes with the midterm elections in May will not be a threat to sustaining the economic gains her administration has achieved, and that her economic team is determined to work harder to meet the government’s macroeconomic targets for the year. Let’s certainly hope so, because the poor, the hungry and the desperate cannot wait forever for deliverance.
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