Tambuling Batangas Publication January 24-30, 2018 Issue | Page 5
OPINYON
Enero 24-30, 2018
Archbishop Garcera nanguna sa
pagbabasbas ng St. Francis De Sales
matapos
ang
ginawang
Broadcast Center
pagbabasbas.
Mamerta P. De Castro
LUNGSOD
NG
BATANGAS-- Pinangunahan
ni Lubhang Kagalang-Galang
Lipa Archbishop Gilbert
Garcera ang pagbabasbas
ng bagong bihis na gusali ng
Radio Bayanihan System na
matatagpuan sa C. Tirona St.
sa lungsod na ito noong ika-
19 ng Enero.
Ang naturang gusali
ay idineklara ni Garcera
na tatawaging St. Francis
de Sales Broadcast Center
Dito
matatagpuan
ang
dalawang
himpilan
ng
Archdiocese of Lipa-ang
DWAM Spirit Fm 99.1 at
DWAL FM Radyo Totoo 95.9
na parehong kasapi ng Catholic
media Network(CMN).
Ang Broadcast Center
by Luis V. Teodoro
The poverty of anti-poverty
policy
ALMOST every Philippine
regime since that of Diosdado
Macapagal has at least paid lip
service to ending the poverty that
in varying degrees of intensity
haunts this country and millions
of its people.
Macapagal saw poverty
as the legacy of the unfinished
Revolution of 1896, which
because of US conquest and
intervention failed to deliver on
its promise of independence and
the social, political, and economic
reforms that by the time he was
President would have made the
Philippines and its people among
the most prosperous in Asia.
Macapagal’s successor
Ferdinand Marcos made the need
to reform Philippine society to
improve the quality of life of
“the poorest of the poor” one
of his justifications for placing
the country under martial law
in 1972. He claimed during the
final years of his regime, but
never made good on it, that land
reform and industrialization were
among the means he would use to
achieve that aim.
After
Marcos
was
overthrown by the 1986 civilian
and military mutiny, Roy
Prosterman of the US Agency
for International Development
(US-AID)
urged
President
Corazon Aquino to abolish the
land tenancy system, or else risk
continuing social unrest and even
civil war. Mrs. Aquino responded
by supporting the passage of a
land reform law by Congress,
which, however, was so ridden
with loopholes it hardly made a
dent on what Prosterman once
described as “the worst land
tenancy system on the planet.”
Mrs. Aquino’s son
Benigno S. C. Aquino III saw
corruption as the crucial element
in the country’s continuing
poverty, and in 2010 campaigned
for the presidency on the promise
to end poverty by ending
corruption (“walang mahirap
kung walang corrupt”).
For his part, then
candidate Rodrigo Duterte also
made poverty alleviation one of
the planks of his platform when
he ran for president in 2016.
The focus on poverty
is understandable. The extent of
the country’s problem with it can
hardly be exaggerated. About 22
million Filipinos are in extreme
want, says the National Anti-
Poverty Commission (NAPC),
while 50 to 60 million are “in
varying conditions of deprivation
and vulnerability.” The poor are
everywhere in evidence in the
streets of Philippine towns and
cities. They have inadequate
housing or no homes to speak of.
They can hardly survive each day,
much less send their children to
school.
The existence of the NAPC
is itself a statement on State
recognition of the need to do
something about mass poverty.
But as the Commission itself
points out in its trail-blazing 90-
page book Reforming Philippine
Anti-Poverty Policy (Quezon
City: NAPC, 2017), not only
does State policy on poverty need
reforming.
So many other factors
in governance and government
policies are also at cross purposes
with what should be the central
government task of addressing
poverty. The neoliberal policy
of leaving development solely
to market forces and its making
poverty alleviation an incidental
concern if at all is one example.
What has become a policy
of encouraging hundreds of
thousands of Filipinos to work
abroad because of limited
employment opportunities at
home is another.
The country’s anti-
poverty policy is itself poor not
only in implementation, but in
concept and design as well.
NAPC Secretary Liza
Masa correctly describes the
alleviation of poverty as “the
greatest challenge facing our
country today” despite the much-
touted growth of the economy
over the last several years.
The
NAPC
book
identifies three basic reasons
for the persistence of poverty
despite economic growth: the
underdevelopment of agriculture
and industry; the inequitable
distribution of incomes, assets and
opportunities; and the inadequacy
of social services and social
protection (the unemployed and
retirees, for example, are mostly
left to fend for themselves).
The Philippines has
hardly any real industry to speak
of — much of what passes for
it are assembly line plants and
call centers — while agricultural
productivity and development
are hampered by the archaic land
tenancy system. The results are
limited job opportunities and the
concentration of wealth in the
hands of a few while millions of
Filipinos live a hand-to-mouth
existence without medical care,
education, and other social
services.
The
development
of agriculture and industry
if achieved should result in
correcting the social inequity
based on the inequitable
distribution of the rewards of
development and economic
opportunities, and the deficit
and even total absence of social
services in many communities.
ay dating makikita sa gilid
ng Basilica ng Immaculada
Concepcion hanggang sa
lumipat ito sa kasalukuyang
lokasyon noong Agosto 2015.
Ayon kay Fr. Ildefonso
Dimaano,
kasalukuyang
station manager ng broadcast
center,
minarapat
nilang
ipangalan kay St. Francis de
Sales ang gusali sapagkat ito
ang kinikilalang patron ng
social communications.
Samantala, isinagawa
naman ni Msgr. Ruben
Dimaculangan ang ikalawang
pagbabasbas ng gusali noong
hapon kung saan sa kanyang
mensahe sinabi nito na
natupad na din ang hangarin ng
Archdiocese na maisulong ang
pagkakaroon ng radyo ng pag-
asa at radyo ng pagkakaisa at
ito nga ay ang St. Francis De
Sales Broadcast Center.
“Sa pamamagitan ng
ating istasyon makapagbibigay
na tayo ng “company” sa ating
mga taga-pakinig, sa kanilang
hospital beds, sa workplace o
maging sa tahanan sapagkat
ito ay maaaring pakinggan ng
sinuman. Sa pamamagitan din
nito ay maaari tayong maging
sandata upang ma-reconnect
sa Panginoon ang ating mga
tagapakinig hindi lamang sa
napapanahon at tamang balita
kundi maging sa pagbabahagi
ng salita ng Diyos,” dagdag pa
ni Msgr. Dimaculangan.
Dumalo
sa
pagbabasbas ang mga dating
station managers ng dalawang
himpilan na sina Fr. Jayson
Alcaraz at Fr. Nonie Dolor
gayundin ang iba’t ibang
mga kaibigan at tagasuporta
ng himpilan sa iba’t ibang
sektor. (GG/BHABY P. DE
CASTRO-PIA BATANGAS)
NAPC suggests that the
path to authentic development lies
in the structural transformation
of the economy by building
industry
through
national
industrialization, and developing
the agricultural sector through the
implementation of genuine land
reform and agrarian development.
Each of these areas have certain
needs that have to be addressed,
but the Commission argues that
state policy on poverty must
first of all be based on putting
poverty alleviation at the heart of
economic and social policy rather
than looking at it as incidental to
economic development. Such an
approach demands that poverty
alleviation be the purpose of every
government policy, program and
law.
Immediately
doable,
says the Commission, is the
government’s declaration of its
commitment to areas of priority
concern in addressing poverty,
among them the following: (my
wording)
1. The crafting of national
industrialization and poverty
eradication policies;
2. The adoption of a policy of
social and human development,
which would include the ample
provision of social services and
protection as well as disaster
response;
3. A commitment to long-term
development
which
would
include environmental protection
and rehabilitation as well as
sustainable
production
and
consumption;
4. Assuring people’s participation
in governance;
5. Promoting and protecting civil
and political rights;
6. Ensuring justice for the poor;
and
7. Asserting and defending
national sovereignty.
Whether the reforms
and policies needed will ever
be adopted and implemented
is problematic. The country’s
sorry
experience
with
past administrations is not
encouraging. The
Commission
argues that what is most needed
to assure the adoption of the
needed reforms is the building
of “a constituency of change”
— an informed and empowered
citizenry that will demand the
implementation of the necessary
reforms, to develop which the
reform of the party system, the
electoral process, and the justice
system are needed, as well as
strengthening accountability and
transparency in governance.
Addressing, reducing,
alleviating, and even abolishing
the
man-made
curse
of
poverty will in short require a
multidimensional, multi-faceted,
multi-institutional
approach
across the economic, social, and
political structures of Philippine
society premised on the principle
that living productive and
meaningful lives is a fundamental
human right. It demands the
commitment and engagement of
the entire government, all of its
officials, and the bureaucracy.
It can’t be done through
cash dole-outs to the neediest
families, hoping that the bounties
of economic development will
eventually trickle down to the
poor, or relying on foreign
investments and assistance and
leaving economic and social
development to market forces.
These have quite simply not
worked — and we have the
impoverished state of most
Filipinos to prove it.
Despite its many flaws
and failings, the Duterte regime
could have redeemed itself if, by
adopting and implementing the
reforms needed, it had managed,
among all the administrations that
have preceded it, to rescue the
Philippines and its long-suffering
people from the violence,
indignity and hopelessness of the
penury that for generations has
defined their lives.
There is still time, but
will there ever be, and has there
ever been, the will to do it?