Editorial:

Mitigating hunger

What’s the correct definition of hunger? The dictionary meaning of hunger is “a feeling of pain, emptiness or weakness induced by lack of food.”

Another definition is provided by a doctor: “A condition in which people do not get enough food to provide the nutrients for fully productive, active and healthful lives, resulting in shortfalls in nutritional status and reduced chances of survival.”

The second is more comprehensive because it covers not only the unavailability and inaccessibility of food, but also the direct consequences of hunger: malnutrition and early death.

This definition is important because, as pointed out by Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri last week, hunger is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon that should be addressed holistically.

It wasn’t too long ago, of course, that the Social Weather Stations released survey results showing that one in every five Filipino families, or 3.4 million households, had suffered hunger pangs in the past three months at least once. Administration apologists promptly pounced on the survey results as “unfair” and “biased,” and ignored government efforts to address the problem.

No less than President Arroyo, in an apparent attempt to downplay the negative impact of the survey results, said she, too, was a victim of hunger, for she had often skipped meals due to her heavy work schedule. The facetious remark only attracted more opprobrium from her staunch critics.

But it’s good that the government is taking concrete steps to tackle the problem of hunger. The Accelerated Hunger Mitigation Program is already in place, and efforts are under way to provide social-insurance services to help poor families reduce expenses and have more funds to spend on food, according to the National Economic and Development Authority.

For the National Nutrition Council (NNC), social insurance includes boosting the enrollment of food-poor families under the PhilHealth’s indigent program, and speeding up the establishment of Botika ng Bayan and Botika ng Barangay outlets, which make quality and safe medicines affordable for the poor.

The holistic approach to hunger mitigation also means more food-production programs, such as Gulayan para sa Masa, will be undertaken. The NNC also targets the establishment of more Barangay Food Terminals, particularly in the National Capital Region.

The NNC reports that about 1.7 million clients of microfinance institutions have already obtained loans for livelihood activities, and that more than 720,000 individuals have been given jobs in roadside maintenance, and in the construction or rehabilitation of farm-to-market roads and irrigation facilities.

Meanwhile, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority claims to have improved the employability of some 487,000 individuals who have undergone its training programs. 

The question really is whether all this can be sustained. The comprehensive, integrated and holistic approach to hunger—and poverty—is not only necessary, it is the only way to go. 

**** 

Ensuring tax compliance

The government wants to contain the budget deficit this year by P63 billion so it can achieve a balanced budget by 2008.

So where will it get this amount? 

Simple. If business establishments will only issue official receipts, the government could be P65 billion richer.

But wait, there’s more. If taxes were collected from self-employed professionals and individuals, the government could raise about P25.5 billion a year, according to the National Tax Research Center.

All this is wishful thinking, however, unless the government cracks the whip and compels business establishments and professionals to pay up. 

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves has called on individuals and businesses to pay the appropriate amount of taxes on time to support the government’s delivery of infrastructure and social services. “We have to continue improving our tax collection so that we can provide more and better infrastructure and social services and achieve higher and sustained economic growth in the medium term,” Teves said last week.

We seriously doubt, however, if business establishments, professionals and the self-employed will be making a beeline for BIR offices soon.

What could work would be two things. One, the DOF can make an ironclad guarantee that the taxes paid to the national treasury would really go to much-needed infrastructure and social services, and not lost to graft and corruption.

Two, the government hales corporations and individuals to court on tax-evasion charges or perhaps shames them in public as well. If the government really wants to achieve its goal of investing P1.7 trillion over the next four years in infrastructure, such as new roads, bridges, ports, schools, irrigation systems and rural electrification projects, it should look for other ways to exact compliance with tax laws.

Teves seems to be walking too softly by merely invoking the national welfare or appealing to the emotions or the patriotism of those who fail to pay the correct taxes.

The other half of the carrot-and-stick approach in tax collection is, you guessed it, the stick. It’s time for Teves and his DOF team to start carrying a big stick as well.

What’s the correct definition of hunger? The dictionary meaning of hunger is “a feeling of pain, emptiness or weakness induced by lack of food.”

It’s the kind of scene you would expect in a David Lynch or Tim Burton film. You are walking down a long, seemingly endless corridor of signs bearing letters such as AMRI-TWC, IMT-GT and Zopfan. Confusion sets in, followed by despair.

CONSIDER this. Recently, the ownership of approximately 2,000 megawatts of installed capacity controlled by an American independent power producers (IPP) changed hands at the cost of $3.6 billion. The effective cost of the transfer of ownership was $1.8 million per installed megawatt.

Two weeks ago when I wrote about the brewing conflict within the Couples for Christ (CFC) community over the role and direction of its habitat-for-the-poor ministry, Gawad Kalinga (GK), I was merely echoing some of the stories of despair and frustration recounted to me by friends and acquaintances who have devoted a good part of their lives to the CFC movement.

A super railway system is the subject of consultations and research of the DOTC in the wake of the President’s Sona defining her vision to establish a railway network that will crisscross the archipelago, and provide cheap and efficient transport for people and goods.

A decade ago you would have probably been thrown into the box called “fringe group” for simply speaking against something as esoteric-sounding as global warming. Nowadays—thanks to those who tirelessly ploughed the ground earlier—it has become easier, even popular, to talk about climate change.