A New Philippines?

Commentary
By Dr. Cesar D. Candari, MD, FCAP Emeritus
Henderson, Nevada

During the tenure of six Philippine presidents since the 1946 Independence, over 17 million Filipinos have populated the country. Sad to say, there has been no change in the gap between the rich and the poor: 30% rich and 70% poor. Graft and corruption existed from the top to the bottom of our government. I am so dismayed that Malacanang was and is on the link of the Napoles scandal.

Today the populations of 102 million Filipinos are represented by 70%-80% trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty and exploitation. For more than five decades people have grown poorer and poorer, with a growing number living in abject poverty. Perhaps the greatest consequence is the lack of food and resulting hunger afflicting so many. Today, the Philippines’ economy is smaller than Pakistan’s; a quarter of our 102 million people live on less than $1.25 a day. And our reaction seems to be one of defeat: we can’t do anything, so be it.

As a physician, I had participated in a number of medical missions in the Philippines. I had seen enough of the poorest of the poor. Access to medical care for millions of very poor Filipinos is virtually non-existent. The slums of Manila where six million poor survive — barely. The faces on the city streets told many sad tales. We witnessed the travesty of 30,000 helpless, impoverished squatters living around the waste dump in Payatas, the Manila’s main waste dump; garbage is piled seven stories high. Twenty-five percent of the inhabitants live in informal settlements, often in places unsuitable for living. Urban poverty is caused by low household incomes and the internal migration of poor rural families to urban areas.

I saw a large slum area near the outlet of Pasig River with shanty houses; it was a heart-breaking sight to view the scores of gloomy shantytowns along the banks of the river, some precariously constructed on stilts. Somehow 800,000 people live there. Pasig River flows right through the heart of Manila. Tons of sewage, including human excrements was conveniently dumped into the Pasig River. Little wonder why the river stinks to high heavens. The abject poverty lingers as poverty rapes and kills the spirit of the poor. We all too often underestimate poverty’s complexity and cruelty, how it kills, maims and aborts life. But once you see it first hand, you can never forget. I have to look at facts that are, like the sun, too painful for my direct gaze; instinctively, I look away. “The unreported deaths of the poor by reason of their lack of food, shelter, clothes, medicine and simple hope are underestimated” according to a Philippine columnist Montelibano.

In the encyclopedia of nations, the following are very clear. Rural areas mostly remained underdeveloped, thereby leaving most of the peasant communities to subsist on a hand-to-mouth existence. Meanwhile urban areas, especially Metro Manila, cornered major infrastructure and social projects, thereby attracting most of the investments and jobs in the manufacturing and industrial sectors.

Among the poorest Filipinos, most family income is derived from entrepreneurial activities such as selling food on street corners or collecting recyclable materials to sell at the junkyards. Most of the poor are lowland landless agricultural workers, lowland small farm owners and cultivators, industrial wage laborers, hawkers, micro-entrepreneurs, and scavengers. Due to inadequate access to community health centers, members of poor households are not able to maximize health services benefits, such as family planning, resulting in larger families with malnourished and uneducated children. The condition of the poor is made worse by a lack of housing, clean water and electricity, especially in the urban areas.

President Noynoy Aquino has stated he wants to end corruption and solve our crippling poverty. Yet what must be done? I say stop oligarchy, a huge impediment to the progress of the country, and bring back the billions of plundered dollars stashed abroad. Remove thievery and plunder in government officials and cronies. Arrest the crooks, smugglers and tax cheats. Develop infrastructure, fund education, and create employment. The agricultural and fisheries sectors must be revitalized to halt the migration of poor farmers to urban areas.

Occupy Manila

There needs to be a serious reconsideration of a political culture that serves itself, not the tens of millions toiling in poverty. We need to combat financial greed, opportunism, and the corruption, scam, plunder, and thievery of politicians. “Occupy Manila” and all cities in the Philippines for the economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation. We must encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants. Can this be done? Do our countrymen have what it takes to make the necessary sacrifices to build a real future for our homeland? Or are we willing to accept the status quo and watch future generations suffer through the unacceptable conditions that haunt the Philippines today? Are we not concerned of global recession that will sweep across the globe?

Well, we have seen the unthinkable happen during the spring revolutions in Northern Africa, resulting in significant political upheaval in brutal dictatorships. We are witnessing different kinds of revolutions at different stages in nations like the United States, Libya, Greece, Egypt and today in Syria.. The world is changing, and it is time our country and countrymen change with it. I say we can seek true and everlasting reform, that we occupy our cities in a nonviolent manner and demand true, dramatic economic and political changes. Can we have a new Philippines begins today?