Image via WikipediaManila, Philippines — Seventy percent of Filipinos subsist on a P42 daily budget.
Senator Edgardo J. Angara, citing a World Bank study, bared this on Tuesday as he expressed reservations over the proposed P1.645-trillion budget for 2011 which he said is not practical.
“My main concern about the overall budget framework is that it is not responding to the basic, economic, and social problems of our country,” said Angara who formerly headed the Senate’s Finance Committee.
"About 70 percent of our people live on 42 pesos a day, and about 4,000 families are hungry. That’s a very serious problem. It’s not just simply lack of economic growth, but what we have is a jobless growth which widens the income gap even more,” Angara said.
“We should concern ourselves not so much with taming our deficit. Instead we should remind ourselves that our goal is to grow our country, and enhance the income and living standards of our people through job creation,” he added.
“It seems as if there is not much of this proposed budget put into agriculture and food. And because food production is underinvested, food prices will rise in the next five years. On the other hand, a 1 percent increase in agriculture production transmits to almost 1.2 percent in farmers’ income, or reduction of farmers’ poverty,” said Angara.
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