The Best Solution to Poverty

Bicol saw a drop in the poverty threshold decreasing by 20 percent or 91,847 households
from the 461,292 in 2009 to 369,395 last 2015 (Bicol Standard, 2016). The region's per capita
poverty threshold in 2015 was placed at P21,476 higher than the P18,257 in 2012. Thus, this
means that a Bicolano family with five members would need at least P8,948 average monthly to
meet both basic food and non-food needs (PSA Factsheet, 2016). The Conditional Cash Transfer
(CCT) popularly known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), Kalahi-CIDSS)
(Kapit Bisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Service) and
the Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) have been cited by many as contributors to the
decrease in the poverty threshold in the region.
The data above means that the Bicol Region is mobilizing to become the newest regional
economic powerhouse by increasing the spending of every Bicolano family. The disparity
between the rich and the poor, however, is increasing. The current news about the increased
regional inflation only added to the suspended reality of our existence. There is a high
unemployment rate in the country but 4 out of 10 Filipinos who are poor actually have jobs. The
struggle is real because the poor is further milked by large, multinational service companies
looking out for our weary workforce because no one wants to face the Middle East without a job
to pay the debts first. Working in poor-quality, Payless jobs seems to be more practical than be
called indolent, shameless tambay. However, we do not have to buy taxed Payless instant
noodles or enroll in a Payless electronic payment scheme to understand why the term “Payless”
works at a realm of higher understanding of the reality of Philippine poverty.
One does not need to have a degree in economics to discern the causes of poverty in the
country. We each have our own eyes, ears and our own judgment on such things as mundane as
seeing familiar faces on the street, more than telling that poverty is a facemask one wears up the
sleeves. Everyone understands why the poor is getting poorer and the rich getting richer. Even
under welfare, the poorest percentile amounting to 22 million below poverty line individuals
knows the struggle of working so much that sweating becomes rain, without even a P5.00 coin in
the pockets to buy an egg the next day. Ever since the Marcos dictatorship left us really soaked in
this bad, torrential and tropical curse of a debt, every Filipino was left in the cracks, unable to cry
for help from a government so corrupt, that blinking is the only reason why our society survives.
They say we are a powerhouse, a dignified race but I say we are not unless we take care
of our deadbeat, preconditioned, regurgitated soul. Everybody thinks we can solve our situation.
The intellectuals think so, too; even the sorry economist naturally becomes the petri dish for our
bagoong. We need time to condition ourselves that we need saving. Instead of relying on foreign
aid, loans and remittances, we need to look each other in the eye and say enough of this bullshit.
Of course, it will be a hard bargain for everyone as changing our customs and traditions would
entail a system-wide restart. I did hope that the populist regime of President Digong would be a
cause for celebration to trigger the switch but I was disappointed. His stance on everything is
double-sided, in fact, reverse-edged, but the idea of changing the constitution was sort of
ingenious. After 1986, everything from the political down to the environmental strata went
downhill, causing a landslide deadlier than any typhoon can cause. That was a right step but
surely, he can’t defeat the embedded diarrheal infection plaguing the system.
A messiah in the guise of a human, as we now know, cannot effectuate the attack on the
root cause of poverty. What was the root cause? We are like crabs in a basket. We tend to bring
down others to our own demise, or we bring their success to a halt. We Filipinos have retained
our colonial mentality such that everything we do is meant for the clan. Instead of nationalistic
fervor, we replace it with a fatalistic endeavor toward self-serving interests which we
unknowingly inherit even under globalization. What are we to do as a last resort? Sure, there is
no quick cure to this malady. Even though our country is just over a hundred years old, the
stench is purely more than 300 years embedded in our veins. Over the years, our divisions are
becoming clearer. No one really knows the truth anymore. Everybody has a mouth to speak lies
about everybody.
We therefore need to rework from the ground up. Our haphazard industrialization did not
benefit the archipelago. Instead of fishing, we went with servicing. Instead of an agricultural
revolution, we gave a shot at burning oil atop a waterscape full of opportunities that even
developed countries envied. We thought we could move at the speed the pilgrims of America
went through but all of it was a total failure. However, we can copy the American dream by
starting a fire to ignite a civil war long burning in silence. Armed groups, narco-political
oligarchies, religious fanatics, leftists, hypocrites and all other derivative groups have to come
and go aboard to rally the people. Whoever wins wouldn’t really win, but will enjoy the fruits of
their dead because only the strong can march around the flag of a United Philippine Archipelago.
Subservient we are at least to an authority where poverty is shared amongst the victorious.
Corruption
 Transparency International's 2021 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country 111th
place out of 180 countries which is better than the Philippines' 129th out of 178 ranking in 2011
with a 2.6 CPI, in Transparency International's list. Transparency International-Philippines said
some of the factors that contributed to the Philippines' (2.6) slight jump are the improvement in
government service, and cutting red tape.
Corruption can be felt and seen where power exists. The Philippine government as a
powerful entity therefore has the invisible hand to exploit everything in its power to acquire
advantages that will put more money in the hands of a few. This thread endangers the lives of
many as everyone who aligns in its path are sure to perish if one will not follow wherever it may
lead. Corruption is so much integral to the democratic government we enjoyed that its superior
hold bounded atoms as fluid as a spider’s web. Even the unblemished and principled man cannot
fight off its sticky palms. It is rooted in the political system and politics as we know is the hand
of God in this forsaken land of the Filipino people, enslaved in the past, enslaved still in the
future. There is no escaping this land without corrupting one’s pure innocent heart. Not even
once are our children born without the sin of our fathers. Cursed indeed is the 1986 institution,
the Marcos dictatorship before that, and a long time before that the cheap treatise between
America and Spain as the former behemoth passed power to us. We stubbornly resisted foreign
influences, but we held on to our fate, like a horse blindfolded.
There is no remedy to the corruption lurking like the blood in our veins. Although we
might be happy about the lowering of our rank in the corruption index, we can be still made
happier if we had elected government officials who are less corrupt. Who are the people then
responsible for labeling a person a less corrupt individual? No one, is the answer. Not even
oneself can declare a quality of the incorruptible without being a hypocrite. Chances are very
slim that there’d be a single Filipino who had never took part in a “Balikatan” exercise of
corruption.
I wish to change the system. Everyone I guess is tired of all the corruption we are seeing
now. But take heed, we are corrupt because we have been corrupted. I cannot be proud of our
history but truth be told, it is the truth. But do not let others fool you into thinking that we are a
failed democracy. My life has taught me that we are learning things the way other nations had
gone so far. We are just 100 years old or so as a nation so they should keep quiet. Yes, there is
abuse. Yes, there is corruption. And yes, we can learn through it all. God bless the Philippines.