Case Study: Economic Issues1. (Waiting line for NFA Rice Keep Getting Longer As the price of commercial rice grains increase three times a week, people endure lining up for NFA rice under the scorching sun just to buy their daily supply of the Filipinos’ staple food.)
Tricia, a 23-yrear-old mother of three, lined-up to buy rice at the Pritil Public Market in Tondo, Manila with her one-year old son and three-year-old daughter in tow. “Nung may pasok ang mga bata sa eskwela, libre lang ang NFA rice. Ngayon kailangan ko pang pumila para makabili,” (When the classes of my children were on-going, we were given NFA rice for free. Now we have to line up to buy). Tricia was referring to the Department of Education’s (DepEd) feeding program for students in public schools. Some of the mothers also lining up to buy rice butted in, saying that their children used to bring home five kilos of rice from school. One of the mothers said the rice ration was given once or twice a month. Pablo Castillo, a dealer of NFA rice in the Pritil Public Market, said he had 40 sacks of NFA rice on Thursday, April 10. When he opened his store around 7 a.m. of Friday, April 11, he had 16 sacks left to sell. At around 7:40 a.m. of the same day, the rice sacks were down to only eight. He had nothing to sell after an hour. “Natatakot ang mga tao na maubusan ng bigas,” Castillo said, “hindi na mapigil ang tao.” (The people are afraid of running out of rice. They refuse to stop lining up to buy more). Castillo, who has been a dealer of NFA for six years through the Bigasang Bayan program of the government, said the NFA only allocates 30 sacks of rice per dealer per week. A sack sells at P862.50 ($20.73 at an exchange rate of $1=P41.595), which is being sold at a retail price of P18.25 ($0.438) per kilo. Dealers are only allowed to sell from 7 a.m. to 12 noon and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m . .. After lining-up for the second time that morning, Tricia looked around the market if there were other NFA rice dealers. “Pipila pa sana ako para hindi na ako babalik bukas dito sa palengke,” (I intend to line up for more so I would not have to go back here in the market tomorrow.) she said. But it seemed most NFA rice dealers had nothing to sell as most of the stores were already closed as early as 9:30 a.m. Carrying her one-year old child, who has fallen asleep after the long wait, Tricia left for home without buying her family’s viand for the day. “Bibili na lang ako ng lutong ulam,” (I would just buy cooked food.) she said. Cooked viand sold by neighborhood vendors costs around P25 to P35 ($0.60 to $0.84) an order. “Yung may sabaw na lang ang bibilin ko para magkasya sa amin,” (I would buy viand with sauce so that all of us would be able to eat.) she said. From the market, Tricia and her two kids walked about a kilometer to reach home, a 2x6 meter house made of wood scraps, along Penalosa St. in Tondo. (By Dabet Castañeda, Bulatlat, Vol. VIII, No. 10, April 13-19, 2008) Project/Activity/Requirement 1. Identify the Church’s organizations and activities that cater to the needs of the poor 2. Group the class into five students each group. The group must think of a fund raising activity that can be done by a class for one month. Each group must propose it to the class. The class will choose among the proposed fund raising activities and adopt it as the class fund raising project. 3. Research on how AdDU students practice simple living. 4. Create a one minute-video presentation similar to an advertisement for the promotion of simple living. Other Economic Cases/Situations 1. Gawad Kalinga Gawad Kalinga (GK) is one of the highly successful housing and development projects for the poor. And it is going global to improve the lives of countless poor in other countries such as India, Nigeria, South Africa, and Nicaragua. Going global is part of the GK777 campaign which means building 700,000 homes in 7,000 communities in seven years by year 2010. (Gawad Kalinga goes Worldwide by Nestor P. Burgos, Jr. and Ma. Ceres P. Doyo, PDI, March 1, 2007) 2. Am I brother's and sister's Keeper? Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do to me." (Matthew 25:40). "Am I my brother's and sister's keeper?" (Gen. 3:9). Remember the Bible story of Cain and Abel? When God asked Cain about his brother, Abel, all Cain could say was those strange words, "Am I my brother's keeper?" God knew what had happened. Today, God knows the deep suffering and the poverty of the women and children we try to serve. Can you imagine a day when you stand before Him in judgment, as surely we all must, and you are able to explain how you tried to be "your sister's or brother’s keeper" as she or he struggled with homelessness and despair? We hope after reading through this text, you will be inspired to get involved. We ask not for ourselves, but for God's children and people in need. 3. "Poorest" Provinces in the Philippines Northern Samar, Sulu and Masbate are the "poorest" provinces in the Philippines, according to the National Poverty Map 2007 prepared by the Peace and Equity Foundation (PEF)… the three provinces had the "most pronounced conditions of poverty" among the Philippines' 81 provinces. PEF ranked the provinces based on various government poverty indicators, including the lack of housing, lack of access to clean water, sanitation facilities, incidence of malnutrition and income level. Following Northern Samar, Sulu and Masbate at the low end of the PEF Development Index were Basilan, Western Samar, Tawi-Tawi, Maguindanao, Sarangani, Zamboanga del Norte and Negros Oriental. In terms of poverty incidence, Zamboanga del Norte topped the list with 64.6 percent of families living below the poverty level, according to the latest 2003 government figures. Following Zamboanga del Norte are Maguindanao (60.4 percent), Masbate (55.9 percent), Surigao del Norte (54.5 percent) and Agusan del Sur (52.8 percent). In the area of sanitation, Tawi-Tawi was worst off with only 46.9 percent of the households having access to a toilet. Also lacking in terms of sanitation are Masbate, Samar, Basilan, Northern Samar, Sarangani, Sorsogon, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental and Cebu. (An excerpt from the article “Poverty map shows poorest RP provinces,” Cebu Daily News April 13, 2008) 4. An invitation to calculate for our Country 6,500,000,000 PHP for ONE FAMILY IS EQUAL TO: Luxury cars they could parade in the streets with no speed limit, coding, or any respect for traffic policies. Vacation houses that would be empty for 11.75 months a year. Family vacations in Europe, the US, the Moon, etc. Handbags that are more expensive than low cost houses Watches that could send a dozen scholars to school from pre-school to high school 6,500,000,000 PHP for ONE FAMILY IS EQUAL TO: 108,000 families that would be given decent homes that they could live in for 15-20 years; 77,380 employees that would be fairly supported for one year; 135,416 Scholars who could go to decent colleges for four years; 40,000 people who would get health insurance for a year; 11,607 Scholars who could study in ATENEO or LA SALLE for 4 years with stipend and school supplies allowance 9,285 Public School libraries that would serve 18,570,000 public school students WHAT IS 130 MILLION DOLLARS TO YOU? *How many schools would that be? *How many children would be given laptops for their education? *How many street children could be saved from the streets? (An excerpt from the article of Reese Fernandez, Team RP entitled What is $130 Million?) 5. Pork barrel expenditures Dubious pork barrel expenditures have gone techie. A civil society report on the use of congressional pork barrel uncovered at least six information technology (IT) projects in Luzon in which basic, "unbranded" personal computers installed in public schools were allegedly bought at P217,500 each. An unbranded PC with licensed software would normally cost just around P50,000 at the most, noted the first installment of "PDAF Watch," an initiative of the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (Code-NGO). The "overpriced" IT projects were found in Metro Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon. Pork barrel, a source of kickbacks, is a fund appropriated in the national budget to help lawmakers curry favor with voters by identifying the projects that will be funded by their pork barrel allocations. PDAF, or Priority Development Assistance Fund, is the pork barrel allocated to members of the House of Representatives and senators. It is mainly used for projects on a menu set by the Department of Budget and Management, such as health care and education. Congressional Allocation (CA), also a pork barrel, is mainly for infrastructure projects. A congressman representing a district is allocated P65 million in PDAF a year and a party-list representative, P35 million. A senator gets P200 million in PDAF. Shabbily built roads In a presentation Wednesday, Code-NGO officers said PDAF Watch "monitors" from around the country, who worked on the project between 2005 and 2006, reported the following: . Of the 64 road projects nationwide that were covered by the report, 18 projects, or 28 percent, were found "defective" when inspected less than a year after their completion. The shabbily built roads already had potholes, cracks, or thinning layers of concrete or gravel. . Of the same sample, two road projects were actually nonexistent yet declared "completed" in documents the volunteers had obtained from the Department of Public Works and Highways. . The cost of the defective roads totaled P14 million, or 17 percent of the P84.6 million spent for the 64 roads in the sample. . Of the seven IT projects monitored, six had PCs costing P217,500 each "even though their parts were unbranded" or could be had for much lower prices in the market. (An excerpt from the article More pork graft exposed --PCs at P217,500 each for Luzon IT projects, By Volt Contreras Philippine Daily Inquirer March 22, 2007) 6. Perks of Congressman DAYS before the 14th Congress opened, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. had humored the neophyte members of the House of Representatives about the enviable perks enjoyed by lawmakers. The former representative of Camarines Sur who once chaired the powerful House appropriations committee was invited to orient the first-term legislators on the budgeting process. During his talk, he remarked how wonderful it is to be a congressman: "You have flexible time. Pwede kang pumasok, pwedeng hindi (You may or may not go to work) yet still get your salary." Then, he warned them not to make the mistake of paying for meals and drinks at the Batasan Pambansa's South Lounge as it is their privilege to be served free food. Andaya may have meant everything as a joke, only that speaking of the privileges that legislators enjoy in such manner was hardly amusing, especially given a quorum-challenged legislature that has been passing fewer and fewer laws each year despite the ever increasing budgetary allocation to lawmaking. When the 13th Congress formally closed last June 30, it managed to pass only 148 laws, setting a new record-low in the history of the Philippine legislature. That is no laughing matter. Yet apparently, the mention of perks was the very cue Jose de Venecia Jr. had also waited for. When came his turn to give the freshman legislators a briefing, the just elected House Speaker announced even more entitlements for members of the Lower House, in particular, an annual P1-million foreign travel allotment, and allocations for additional staff and maintenance of their respective district offices. There's even a new building in the works to house new offices for the congressmen. What the public commonly knows is that his or her district representative gets a monthly salary of P35,000, plus, of course, yearly pork-barrel allocations amounting to P70 million -- P20 million in Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and P50 million as congressional allocation for public works projects. What is seldom known are the amounts corresponding to their other entitlements, apart from salary and pork barrel. As gleaned from the Commission on Audit 's annual published itemized lists, these include expenses for district staff allocation, contractual consultants, research, consultative local travel, communication, and supplies. There are also allocations for a public affairs fund, central office staff, equipment/furniture and fixtures, and other maintenance and operating expenses |
1. What have you discovered about the situation of Tricia?
2. Is Tricia's situation shared by many of the Filipino people? Describe the situation. 3. Why the price of commercial rice grains is increasing so fast?
4. What is the effect of the increase to Tricia and the rest of the Filipino people? 5. Study 2 or 3 economic policies and practices in the Philippines. Which ones are pro-poor? Which ones are anti-poor? Explain. Give suggestions how to improve these policies and practices.
6. Read and explain how the scriptures deal with poverty: Deut. 15: 1-8; 24: 17-21; Lk. 12: 1-15; Acts 4: 32-35 |