December 23, 2006 · Posted in: i Report Features, Image Galleries, In the News

Indisputable hunger

RECORD millions of Filipinos are going hungry, the Social Weather Stations (SWS) recently reported. Because of poverty, more and more Filipino families are now subsisting on only one real meal a day.

While some government officials have disputed SWS’s findings, the existence of soup kitchens like the one at the Quiapo Church which continue to feed Metro Manila’s famished and homeless perhaps could attest to the hunger stalking many Filipinos. Last year, we featured the feeding program that the Divine Mercy Apostolate has been running at the renowned basilica three times a day since June 2004.

The above photos (many as yet unpublished) by Jose Enrique Soriano accompanied the report by Sheila S. Coronel on the soup kitchen and the lives of some of the people who queue for lugaw (rice porridge) at the church to stave off hunger.

5 Responses to Indisputable hunger

naykika

December 23rd, 2006 at 9:28 pm

Some government officials dispute the number of hungry people who depend on charity for supplemental diet. Well, I suggest for once they get off their Ivory towers and mingle with the public, visit the feeding centers or just walk the streets of Manila or the city center. Even the blind could sense it, it is undeniable, while there are a few who are wealthy beyond imagination, there are millions who hardly have enough to eat. Until the day comes when our political leaders and all government officials face up to the problem and start finding solutions to the grassroots, it will only grow worse as the population rise. And it will someday distinguish the country ranking among the top as the “Hunger capital of the Asia” next to North Korea.. The possibility is there.

aus_phil

December 25th, 2006 at 6:05 am

Hunger is not anymore a phenomena that has just recently occurred. Many Filipinos go hungry everyday esp. those in the the cities!

I have personal experience of how to go hungry many years back! Imagine, I would have thought we were in the lower middle class! How much so if you’re in the lowest strata?

It is irresponsible for any government to keep a blind eyes of this situation. The protein intake of Filipinos is one of the lowest in the world, hence, we do not have the staying power to a day’s work! Is it unproductive? You may call it that way. That soup kitchen in Quiapo should be a social barometer of governance. In the past we don’t have this, perhaps because no kind-hearted institution such as the church would have ventured to feed the hungry. This feeding center is not only once an occassion assistance but a regular feeding center. Davao City has one but only on certain occassions such as Christmas. If government is offended by the act of the few who want to feed the hungry, then it should do something to alleviate the hunger. Every Filipinos, esp. those who have the staying power and bit blessed, should take this as a challenge! The Philippines has not yet reached the stage of massive hunger caused by famine, war, pestilence, etc. as those happening in Africa.

No country would attain any developments or progress unless it cares for the disadvantaged, helpless, hungry, etc.!

mac.bh

December 25th, 2006 at 7:25 pm

There is no doubt that more Filipinos are now hungry than ever but using the “Lugaw sa Quiapo” as the barometer of hungry population is a false conception, simply because those being fed there are the beggars who does not constitute the population as a whole. Even US of A has a lot of feeding stations, therefore this problem is not economics after all, but proper application of available resources.

The church action of this lugaw feeding is just a show. Can you imagine a church with million of collection per day can only afford to feed lugaw? Another way of advertising donate more to the church at a cost of a lugaw! What a shame! The same church who oppose the method of family planning, humayo kayo at magpakarami, papakainin ko kayo ng lugaw!

So what can the present government can do about this? NOTHING! As in ZERO! Because they are busy with political survival rather than problem solving.

Here are some of the solutions to make the cost of basic goods lower and be available to the common people:
1. Congress should pass a law banning the middlemen to a maximum of two tier. This way the profit can be minimize not more than 50% of the original cost.
2. Remove VAT and taxes on services (transportation) related to the basic commodities, like vegetable, meat and fish
3. Small Sari-sari store should be banned, and encourage these small enterprises to form a cooperative. Let say the capitalization of business should be at least 250,000 before any municipal permit can be granted. This will encourage real business that can employ communities with a big chance to grow as against the small sari-sari store that easily collapse from the neighbor “utang”, which in the end wasted money, time and effort.
4. Scattered Banks across the land and pass a law that a certain portion of portfolio should be lending to the have-nots.

Indisputable hunger

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