August 31, 2005 · Posted in: Governance
The country’s poor
WHEN it comes to quality of life, personal or national, the poorest segment of the country’s population feels no differently from the rest of the country. About the same proportion (73 percent) of the poorest or Class E say their families are worse off in July 2005 than a year earlier, as do other socioeconomic classes (67 percent).
They are just as pessimistic as the rest of the country as well about their families’ prospects in the year ahead, with 52 percent of them predicting it will be worse for them.
These are Pulse Asia’s findings on “Concerns, Coping Strategies and Perceptions of the Poor” taken from its July 2005 nationwide survey of 1,200 adult respondents.
Pulse Asia defines the poorest Class E as those who face great difficulties in meeting their basic survival needs. They live in slums or densely populated districts, or if in the rural areas, in houses of light materials (barong barong type). They may have electricity and plumbing and own at most a radio and a black and white TV for appliances.
Highlights of Pulse Asia’s survey:
- Compared to other socioeconomic classes, members of Class E are as concerned about having a secure source of income and their children’s education, but are more concerned about daily food intake than health, according to the survey. The number in Class E citing adequate food as an urgent personal concern rose by 18 points since March 2005.
- All socioeconomic classes consider inflation as the most urgent national concern, but the poor consider poverty as more urgent than issues such as graft and corruption. The country’s poor, however, does not significantly differ from the rest of the country in rating the government’s poverty reduction efforts. A marginally smaller proportion (62 percent) of class E disapproved of its performance, compared to a national figure of 67 percent.
- Majority of members of Class E (57 percent) continue to say that food manifested the biggest price increase in the three-month period preceding the survey. A sizable number, however, now cite electricity (20 percent) and transportation (11 percent). To cope with the price increases, the poor reduced their food consumption (23 percent), their consumption of other goods and services (23 percent) and borrowed money (18 percent).
- Nearly half of the country’s poorest (45 percent) say the food consumed by their families is inadequate. Their meals usually consist of rice or corn and fish (45 percent) or rice or corn and vegetables (38 percent).
- One-fourth of Class E say housing is inadequate. They also say their expenses for clothing (38 percent), medicine (58 percent) and schooling (62 percent) are not enough.
- Poor Filipinos – 41 percent of Class E and 37 percent of Class D – tend to attribute the increase in prices of oil products to negligence on the part of the present administration rather than to the increase in world market prices of crude oil. Meanwhile, even as the expanded VAT law awaits implementation, the increase in electricity rates is attributed to taxes by more than a third of Filipinos, with class E posting a marginally higher percentage (41 percent).
- Asked what a poor person who has lost hope of escaping poverty would do, 40 percent of the poor say such a person will pray while 32 percent say that such a person will look for a job overseas. However, only 7 percent of class E think the country is hopeless while 28 percent are undecided.
- Among the class E who think that the country is hopeless or are undecided, only 5 percent say that the poor who have lost hope will join protests or attempt to overthrow government (down from 22 percent), while 7 percent say they will steal (down from 18 percent).
- Only 3 percent of class E families have at least one family member who was working overseas at the time of the survey.
Read Pulse Asia’s full report.
11 Responses to The country’s poor
benign0
August 31st, 2005 at 2:34 pm
Wow. I didn’t know one needed a “survey” to figure out all of the above. What’s the matter? Running out of investigative scoops? 😀
If one really needed a picture of what levels of poverty the Pinoy has begun to plumb, might I suggest we consider that poverty is merely a state of mind. Problem is Pinoys have a state of mind that begets further poverty — intellectual bankruptcy. We lack the wherewithal and the resolve to overcome poverty and instead are imprisoned by this bizarre DUKHA mentality.
As the eminent Francisco Sionil Jose explained, the PHYSICAL poverty mentioned in typical articles on poverty such as the one above is nothing compared to the deeper and more entrenched poverty of the mind and soul that Pinoys suffer from. As he put it:
=================
“But this physical poverty is really not as serious as the greater poverty that afflicts us and this is the poverty of the spirit.
Why then are we poor? More than ten years ago, James Fallows, editor of the Atlantic Monthly came to the Philippines and wrote about our damaged culture which, he asserted, impeded our development. Many disagreed with him but I do find a great deal of truth in his analysis. This is not to say that I blame our social and moral malaise on colonialism alone. But we did inherit from Spain a social system and an elite that, on purpose, exploited the masses. Then, too, in the Iberian peninsula, to work with one’s hands is frowned upon and we inherited that vice as well. Colonialism by foreigners may no longer be what it was, but we are now a colony of our own elite.
We are poor because we are poor – this is not a tautology. The culture of poverty is self-perpetuating. We are poor because our people are lazy. I pass by a slum area every morning – dozens of adults do nothing but idle, gossip and drink. We do not save. Look at the Japanese and how they save in spite of the fact that the interest given them by their banks is so little. They work very hard too.”
=================
The above is an excerpt from a paper read by Mr. Jose in a luncheon sponsored by Ambassador Yuchengco for clients of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp a few years back. Check out the complete transcript of Mr Jose’s paper at the following site:
http://www.geocities.com/benign0/Unclassified/why_poor.html
Kawawa naman ang Pinoy… 😀
manunga
August 31st, 2005 at 3:08 pm
Benigno,
What is it that you want to happen?
I am assuming you want change, that you want a better Philippines, but don’t you see that your manner just offends so many people so much that they cannot see whatever value your ideas may have? So where does that leave you? The sound of one hand clapping?
You seem to understand the Pinoy psyche so well, anyway, so why don’t you use this understanding to your advantage? Baka may maniwala pa sa yo…
Not that I agree with many of your ideas, but it just frustrates me that people with things to contribute (and I am willing to concede that you are probably among them) to the good of this nation can’t see past their own egos… nasasakripisyo tuloy yung “common good”! Typically “pinoy” na naman, you would say… But that’s precisely it, sir. You’re the best example of the “typical pinoy” that you keep on sneering at in the blogs! You really don’t realize that, do you?
It’s like when you malign some people in the blog for name-calling… Don’t you know that ad hominem is ad hominem however which way it is said? It can be in the foulest, most vulgar language or it may be in the form of some intellectual-sounding snobbery… pero parehas lang yun!
Your propensity to elicit people’s ires rather than intelligent discussion (you can claim otherwise but actions speak louder than words…) makes me doubt your intentions… You just seem to enjoy the sound of your own voice too much…
If the only reason why you’re participating in the blogs is to advertise your site, maybe a paid ad will be a better way to do that? But of course I will give you the benfit of the doubt that this may not be your motive…
So I go back to my original question:
What is it that you want to happen?
Do indulge this typical kawawang Pinoy, please….
Yvonne Chua
August 31st, 2005 at 4:03 pm
Benigno,
As a frequent visitor of the pcij blog, you surely must know by now that we regularly feature SWS and Pulse Asia survey results. This post is no different.
primo
August 31st, 2005 at 4:34 pm
anything but math for benign0 kaya ganyan yan.. akala ko ba tanggap mo na second class citizen ka dyan sa 1st rate country? fyi, surveys are being respected in 1st rate country what more dito sa mahal naming bayan ng Pilipinas?
baycas
August 31st, 2005 at 7:34 pm
benign0 makes a living doing what he does. i highly recommend ignoring such a pest. if there’s an iota of love for our native land in his heart he will stop posting irritating comments in pcij’s blogs.
erudite as he thinks he is, i’m sure he will not answer this…
benign0
August 31st, 2005 at 8:31 pm
manunga said,
===============
So I go back to my original question:
What is it that you want to happen?
Do indulge this typical kawawang Pinoy, please….
===============
Quite simple really:
(1) That Pinoys identify simple and fundamental issues about our character as a people and as a society that hobble our efforts to build a prosperous nation.
(2) That initiatives to change be based on a clear understanding of said fundamental issues.
Cheers. 😉
noelet
August 31st, 2005 at 9:38 pm
im trembling in thoughts and lost in emotion.
noelet
August 31st, 2005 at 9:41 pm
hopefully someday benign0 can identify his backward character as an example of his very own postulate for prosperity.
as pinoy he could get himself be the example of a rotten culture.
manunga
September 1st, 2005 at 12:28 pm
Ohmy….
After all the blab, what it boils down to are generalizations and basic truths that we all know already…. My. And you have been so far removed from the actualities in the country that you are not even aware of the fact that there are already many of us who are actually involved in this kind of nation-building?
So that is what you want to happen, huh? So what is it that you are actually doing to make that happen? Meron ba?
Kaya maraming ayaw tumanggap sa ideas mo dito sa blog is NOT because the truth hurts, Benigno. It’s simply because the ideas are coming from someone with no credibility nor authority to be preaching them. You blab on and on but you don’t seem to walk the walk… Worse, the mere fact that you’ve already left the country, to my mind, clearly estops you from your arrogance on us. Really, para kang trespasser.
Dami mong ideas (na contentious na nga in the first place) to supposedly improve the country, pero other than howling into the wind, what do you actually contribute? Bumalik ka kaya ng Pinas and get your hands dirty doing what it is you preach, baka irespeto ka pa…
Until then, I will waste no more space on this blog on you…
By the way, yung quote mo sa website mo ay kulang… And this kind of inaccuracy and blatant ability to twist the someone else’s words just puts your crediility and integrity into question all the more.
To the moderators: is it possible for people to petition to have a person kicked of the blog? Just wondering…
benign0
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:45 am
manunga said,
==================
Ohmy….
After all the blab, what it boils down to are generalizations and basic truths that we all know already…. My. And you have been so far removed from the actualities in the country that you are not even aware of the fact that there are already many of us who are actually involved in this kind of nation-building?
==================
Oh my talaga. So cite examples please. Can you show me sepcific evidence of people understanding the REALLY fundamental issues (issues more fundamental than the petty political discussion you find here), that afflict the nation. The kind of introspection that launches Meiji Resotration type national initiatives to change.
manunga said,
==================
So that is what you want to happen, huh? So what is it that you are actually doing to make that happen? Meron ba?
==================
Here is the first step I am taking — it is coming up with a framework for change:
http://www.getrealphilippines.com/solution/framework.html
manunga said,
==================
Kaya maraming ayaw tumanggap sa ideas mo dito sa blog is NOT because the truth hurts, Benigno. It’s simply because the ideas are coming from someone with no credibility nor authority to be preaching them. You blab on and on but you don’t seem to walk the walk… Worse, the mere fact that you’ve already left the country, to my mind, clearly estops you from your arrogance on us. Really, para kang trespasser.
==================
So I “don’t seem to walk the walk”, do I? What exactly does “Walking the walk” entail? Are you looking for a hero?
manunga said,
==================
Dami mong ideas (na contentious na nga in the first place) to supposedly improve the country, pero other than howling into the wind, what do you actually contribute? Bumalik ka kaya ng Pinas and get your hands dirty doing what it is you preach, baka irespeto ka pa…
==================
What do I contribute? You yourself said it — IDEAS. Does anyone have better ideas? If so, show them and articulate them.
Any schoolboy can dismiss ideas summarily. But real thinkers can ARTICULATE clearly (without the judgments of character that riddles “comments” like yours that is so typical of Pinoy-style debate).
manunga said,
==================
Until then, I will waste no more space on this blog on you…
==================
Suit yourself. 😉
manunga said,
==================
By the way, yung quote mo sa website mo ay kulang… And this kind of inaccuracy and blatant ability to twist the someone else’s words just puts your crediility and integrity into question all the more.
To the moderators: is it possible for people to petition to have a person kicked of the blog? Just wondering…
==================
Kicked out of the blog for doing what exactly? Speaking one’s mind?
I thought PCIJ was all about speaking one’s mind?
What’s the matter? Is the discussion getting too hot to handle?
ha ha! 😀
atom
September 27th, 2005 at 5:31 pm
I agree and understood clearly and all other ideas and what Benigno said In addition to that we should blame ourselves.We should work hard every Filipino should do something everyday.Most of us from my observation only one in the family the least is working to support.The statistis mentioned is a study for us to analyzed the situation howver.
If we 80 Million Filipinos strived hard changed our attitudes joined hand to move our countries forward to prosperity.No other reason obstract us,It is within us our our enemy us Mr. S. Jose said.
Yes in every great religion competition is good,as long as there is no conflict to his teaching. This the way to progress