What's the major cause?
THE usual answers to this question are because allegedly we Filipinos, according to other Western-based foreigners, are stupid, idiots, indolent, thieves, corrupt, undisciplined, crab-minded, divided, and more. Although some of these allegations are true which I must not deny, but let us have the real answers.
Nation's Horrendous And Endless Debts At Increasing PHP6-7 Trillion in 2016-2017-2018?:
The major reason is because a largest portion of our annual national budget, by mandatory national and foreign policies, goes to paying our gargantuan and huge and endless foreign and domestic debts under the present financial-economic debt-based mechanisms, instead of prioritizing people's development such as organic farming and or conventional farming, and using it to build more roads, highways, bridges, schools, hospitals, housing units, railroads, irrigation, cable lines, and other public works; to raise the salaries and benefits of our public school teachers, policemen, soldiers, and government employees; and to fund more development programs such as agricultural sectors, and poverty-alleviation and sustainable economic programs in the impoverished Philippine villages, in the countryside.
For every peso being collected as tax that the Filipino taxpayer pays to the government, the biggest part of it (about a third) only goes, as a major priority by presidential decree, to our foreign and international creditors that impose us so many conditions detrimental to Filipino people. One drastic condition, is MANDATORY POPULATION CONTROL PROGRAM in the euphemism of Reproductive Health which is the code-word for abortion -- which is now, unfortunately -- a law, finally decided by the Philippine Supreme Court in 2015. The debate on funding population control continues with opposing political parties. I understand that Government is also looking for solutions to Filipino populations in poverty, there might be right solution in terms of economy, but wrong methods while there are also wrong solutions at the same time on apparently right methods.
Just like the national budget in 1986 on the records, and other national budgets in the past successive years 2013-2015 under different administrations, when the P250 billion was allocated for interest payments alone, and 70 per cent of that went to our creditors-IMF and WB and in 2011, 70% of the budget is allocated for servicing the debts, and while the more than 70 million Filipinos then had to fight for the remaining 30 per cent and when graft, corruptions and scams are also very high. And with imposed austerity measures upon the Government and the Filipino people with the losing value of money and the increasing prices of basic needs, commodities and services and with the imposition of 12% to 15% Expanded Value Added Tax or E-VAT 2015-2030 to raise more funds to pay the debts and the privatization and selling off of national assets to pay the debts. Now, we have ballooning debt of PHP6-7 Trillion as of 2016-2017-2018.
More and more Filipinos are deprived of social basic services particularly in times of calamities whether man-made or God's doing or nature's doing, and absolutely there is no any form of financial-economic security as we can see the cases of rampant hunger, starvation and poverty of poor families and native indigenous Filipinos in the countryside, and the pressures of Filipino exodus particularly the plight of the Filipino women and mothers to go overseas as domestic helpers now more than 10,000 Filipino women are going outside the country, where the records of abuses and maltreatment are seriously common everyday according to the reports.
Summing up, it is all because a large portion of our national budget is eaten by our huge domestic and foreign debts under criminally debt-based economic system and policies, and is just enjoyed by our rapacious and conscienceless private, foreign and international creditors. This is indeed very unjust and unthinkable.
Even if the alleged US$2.4 billion to $3 Billion annual public graft and corruption in the Philippine Government is not stolen, this money will not still be enough to fight poverty.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
