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UNLESS
more Filipino children at least enter and complete the
elementary grades, the Philippines would cross into a
“failed” state from the current “messy” state it is in,
Prof. Solita Monsod said, adding “not to say the higher
tiers.”
Speaking
before a jam-packed Rizal Ballroom at the Makati
Shangri-la Hotel on Wednesday, Monsod said that more
than other corporate social responsibility initiatives,
helping improve education and reducing poverty should be
the top priority of companies.
“It is
disconcerting that the upward spike in our GDP is not as
fast as the decrease in the incidence in poverty,” she
told company executives attending the 2008 Corporate
Social Responsibility conference. The former
socioeconomic planning secretary of President Corazon
Aquino was asked to brief them on the country’s economic
situation.
Citing
43 years of data, Monsod said the trajectory of growth
should have led to a decrease in poverty incidence but
the rise in the number of poor Filipinos
suggests that government anti-poverty policies and
programs were, and are, failures.
Economist Arsenio Balisacan, whom she cited as
authority, had also said early this year the number of
poor people rose to its highest level in 2006. “Poverty
increased between 2003 and 2006 despite the quite
respectable economic performance as reflected in GDP
growth during this period. It thus appears that the
economic growth in recent years had bypassed the poor.”
The
second disconcerting area that Monsod said the private
sector must focus on is education, which has a direct
correlation with poverty.
Monsod
said that 80 percent of poor family have heads “who have
at most elementary education,” but even this meager
educational attainment may not be available to children
today because data reveals the Philippines won’t meet
its 2015 United Nations Millenium Development Goal
target for elementary education.
“You’ve
got to attack education,” urged Monsod, the first post-Edsa
National Economic Development Authority
director-general.
Still,
she assured the assembly there is hope because the
country’s problems are “not terminal. . .Growth is
relatively strong, civil society is strong, and the
military hasn’t crossed the line—yet.”
Nonetheless, the country also faces several challenges
that range from unfavorable local investment environment
and weak institutions. |
