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Introduction The Philippines is one of the three countries granted exemption in 1995 from the removal of quantitative restriction (QR) on rice under Annex 5 of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement. Japan and South Korea are the other two countries. The exemption will expire on December 31, 2004. The primary objective of the paper is to look at the possible poverty and distributional effects of the removal of the QR and the reduction in tariffs on rice imports.
In particular, the paper attempts to analyze the following issues: (a) Do the poor share in the potential gains from a freer market for rice? (b) What alternative or accompanying policy measures may be needed to ensure a more equitable distribution of the potential gains from a more liberalized market for rice? (c) What is the transmission mechanism in which the removal of the control may affect the poor? These are some critical issues that the government may have to address as it implements market reform and opens the economy for imported rice.
Rice is the staple food of about 80 percent of Filipinos, and therefore a major item in the consumption basket of consumers. It is the single most important agricultural crop in the Philippines, and therefore a major source of income of millions of Filipino farmers. Because of its political significance, the government is heavily involved both in the supply and distribution of rice to assure consumers sufficient and stable supply of rice at low prices and to maintain a reasonable return to rice farmers with adequate price incentives.
One major policy instrument of the government at present is the control on imported rice through QR. A market reform in general and a removal of QR on rice in particular could have economy-wide effects. In this regard, it is appropriate to analyze these types of issues using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model calibrated to national accounting data. On the other hand, it is appropriate to study the effects of reforms on poverty and income distribution using individual household data to capture the heterogeneity of households.
The paper integrates these two approaches. In particular, it specifies and calibrates an agriculture-focused CGE model to a set of actual data and simulates the effects of the removal of the QR on consumer prices and household income, and applies these results to a set of individual household data in the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) to compute the poverty and income distribution effects. A number of studies in the Philippines have looked at policy issues concerning rice, but the methodology applied is mostly partial equilibrium analysis.
Partial equilibrium analysis however underestimates the possible effects of the reforms because rice, being a major agricultural crop, has many direct and indirect linkages with the rest of the economy. Furthermore, most of the empirical work done does not extend the analysis to look at the impact on poverty. While existing literature provides estimates of changes in consumer and producer surpluses, as well as the Gini coefficient, it does not provide insights on the effects on poverty and on the depth of poverty. This paper addresses this methodological gap in the literature.
In the CGE literature there are two broad approaches to integrating a CGE model with a national household survey to analyze poverty and distributional issues. One approach is through microsimulation wherein the household categories in the model are the same as the household categories in the national household survey. As such, this approach allows for the heterogeneity of individual households during the numerical computation of the equilibrium of the model. The papers of Cogneau and Robillard (2000), Cockburn (2001), and Cororaton and Cockburn (2004) employed this approach. The other approach is more of a recursive type.
For a given policy shock, a CGE model with representative households is used to estimate the change in the average income for each household category and the change in prices. These changes are then applied to an assumed income distribution of each household category (either lognormal or beta distribution) to conduct poverty and distributional analyses. The variance and other parameters of the distribution are estimated using data from the national household survey and are assumed fixed in the analyses, while the first moment of the distribution is altered using the results from the CGE model.
The papers of De Janvry, Sadoulet and Fargeix (1991) and Decaluwe, Dumot, and Savard (1999) and Decaluwe, Party, Savard, and Thorbecke (2000) employed this approach. The present paper applies this second approach, but uses the actual income distribution from the 1994 FIES. The paper is organized in seven sections. The second section discusses the government policies in the rice sector and the production structure of the sector, including prices. The third section looks at the current issue on food and poverty. The fourth section discusses in detail the model used in the analysis, including the parameters, the elasticities and the model tructure at the base. The fifth section gives a description of the poverty and distribution measures used in the analysis. The sixth section outlines the various policy experiments conducted and discusses the results. The last section summarizes the results of the experiments and draws insights for policy. Poverty – poverty in the Philippines – causes for poverty in the Philippines – some solution that can solve the poverty in philippines – reasons and solutions for poverty for most countries such as India and other countries … Poverty – poverty in the Philippines causes for poverty in the Philippines – some solution that can solve the poverty in philippines – reasons and solutions for poverty for most countries such as India and other countries suffering from widespread poverty one of the most recent question tonight is: “some solution that can solve the poverty in philippines” to answer that question we first need to analyze sincerely but critiquely the various causes for poverty in the Philippines as well as in most other countries. poverty can be manifold – poverty in the Philippines can be divided by priority into following causes: poverty in the Philippines caused by laziness to work harder and more hours – poverty in the Philippines caused by lack of quality consciousness – poverty in the Philippines caused by lack of love FOR God and thus FOR all his children on earth – poverty in the Philippines caused by abuse by rich ones – poverty in the Philippines caused by mismanagement of government due to lack of sincere interest for the benefit of ALL – poverty in the Philippines caused by social injustice created by mankind / industry / money world / investors / rich ones – poverty in the Philippines caused by accidents / isasters / war / political instability – poverty in the Philippines caused by personal karma lets elaborate from top to bottom above causes of poverty: Philippines – compared to many other countries is a VERY spoiled country – spoiled by God far more than many other contries in this world. spoiled by having lots of natural recourses readily available for minimum efforts – resources such as – agriculture potential, agriculture resources, agriculture goods – food in all variations grow in abundance with mostly easy work. he Philippines as much as India are highly fertile for agriculture – resulting in many farmers investing even less or no extra efforts at all to improve harvest or to improve quality of agriculture products and efforts to expand period of possible harvest or increase volume of harvest is widely missing. farmers in central Europe – such as Switzerland, Germany and other similar countries with though climate, limited period of productive growth in nature need to work hard for every ton of agriculture product harvested – while here in the Philippiens all grows almost on its own without any additional care needed. ust sit and wait until mangoes, papaya, banana and other fruits fall down by the tons – into your lap or card box … whatever you seed with reasonable care – it grows nicer, faster and bigger than in most other areas of this planet. fruits are more tasty, sweeter and larger than many other places. you find a larger variety of any agriculture product than most places on this planet – almost on any major islands of the Philippines. But lack of difficulties made the Philippino people lazy and SPOILED. European farmers had to work hard to have a reasonable harvest of fruits or crop or airy products – hence once the harvest begins such hard working farmers honor their harvest and remember how much work was involved to get harvest starting and thus such hard working farmers in harsh climate zones keep on working hard to care for their land and keep growth ongoing. as a result of such extreme laziness among spoiled Philippinos, we have even basic products that COULD grow in abundance HERE in the Philippines – in such abundance to produce for EXPORTS, … but even such typical local products are still being IMPORTED from OTHER countries. uch extreme products do include basic food like RICE – just very recently a shipment of rice imported from USA arrived in the Philippines – a natural rice producing land with plenty of water flooded areas during many months of tropical rainy season – a few ten thousand TONS of rice imported into a rice producing country that has by nature ALL natural condition and weather such as rain, ground water, irrigation facilities form rivers or ground water for EASY rice cultures – still most rice potential is widely UN-tapped all around the country. nother product being IMPORTED despite the fact that we have large UN-used resource potential is sugar cane – brown sugar is imported as a result of insufficient local production. … such and similar is the situation all over the many islands i have visited and lived on during the past several years ! having grown up on a mountain farm in Switzerland – i see all land through the eyes of a farmer son – i see the POTENTIAL and never what IS. i see what COULD BE !! the philippines is by FAR low populated compared to its food potential. food is the single most important factor when considering poverty. overty first of all relates to having regular and abundant healthy and natural FRESH food for all family members at affordable prices directly proportional to the average income of ALL. the single MOST natural way of providing FOOD for all is to have ALL OWNING LAND to be used to PRODUCE food for family use PLUS food in exchange of goods or services needed by the family. food is the single most important good in this entire planet. even the very richest ones never love to live without several daily meals . hence ALL planet – all millionairs and professionals of any trade or industry DEPEND on food resources.
NO government should be allowed to OWN land – as all land is a gift of God to all mankind. hence each individual family or person should own only as much as they THEMSELVES and personally can care for with their own human resources without employing or using foreign workers or helpers. if all land is honestly shared among all willing to produce – then all or at least all those who really want can have a food production covering all personal and family needs plus a reasonable excess for trade against other products or services needed. to own land you have the responsibility to CARE for ALL you OWN. o own land means to ACCEPT a gift of love from God – to care FOR such a gift means to keep such land free of poisons, free toxic material, free of waste of any kind except 100% biodegradable agriculture waste. to care for a gift of love from God also means to cultivate it – to allow all natural plants to live and heal YOU and to establish and maintain a natural balance of MIX culture – mix culture as opposed to monoculture of dozens or more hectares of land or entire valleys or regions used for a single product only – such as huge monoculture of rice, sugar, mangoes, coconut trees, corn or similar monoculture. o care for land created and given by God requires a full and TRUE understanding of the NEED and usefulness of all animals, bugs, worms, insects, bees, … as well as the meaning, need and usefulness of all “weeds” created to be ALL healing source for nature itself OR animals serving God’s nature OR healing the environment for the direct health benefit of all mankind.
ALL God has ever created, all animals, all plants – including so called *WEEDS* serve a divine purpose and need to be protected to maintain our healthy balanced ecosystem on this planet. to care for land also means to treat ALL land and all that grows on our entire planet as a living being – part of God himself as all is created OUT of God – and thus to deal, handle and treat all with TRUE love in our heart and body when doing all field work. the farmer who cares – for the land he has the honor to possess and care for the people who need HIS products such a farmer always will improve the quality and quantity in a loving and natural way to give the very finest, cleanest, best, most delicious natural organicly grown vegetables, crop, fruits and other products of his farming efforts. the Philippines – like India and a few similar countries – has the potential climate – tropical and subtropical – ocean level hot and humid to high altitude moderate to grow just about anything and everything that ever could grow on any part of the entire planet. he Phillippines are in such extreme favorable geographic climate that almost any fruit, any vegetable and any herbal or other food resource can be grown in its most natural environment FREE of the need of artificial modifications made to its land. we have cool to moderate high altitude agriculture land such as we may find in summer time in Europe or USA/Canada – we have moderate climate zones similar or equal to the magic Mediterranean climate – we have true tropical and subtropical ones .. ll within dozens or hundreds of kilometers apart. most of the natural resources are widely untapped / unused. there are such huge areas potentially ready to be used as fertile and producing agriculture land without the need of deforestation and without the need of destruction of any natural biological balance. all potential agriculture productivity can be integrated INTO the existing natural beauty and treasure of a wild nature. fields amidst jungle or wild ares left to nature for natural balancing and healing of our environment. e have dependable rainy season, abundance of water all over, sufficient means of reasonable transportation ways by sea or land. all we need is a cooperation among all farmers – a free and living exchange of experiences, exchange of fruits and seedlings among all islands and with neighbor islands / countries in OUR South East Asian neighborhood – a coordination on a global level as well as within a nation to exchange free ideas and simple natural skills / technologies to ease agriculture progress. change of attitude in our all hearts to be willing and ready to pay a honest price for all food we receive from all global farmers to enable farmers to conduct a clean and modern healthy life style enabling all farmers to offer all school education to their own children – school education of basic nature as needed to further progress in producing healthier and better food resources for all in abundance. griculture goods are the single most valuable goods ever prodeuced on earth – no industrial good ever can match even nearly the value of healthy natural resources and products as offered by the hundreds of millions of farmers and fishermen all around our globe !!! lack of quality consciousness is directly proportional of lack of LOVE FOR others ! this lack of quality consciousness is common in many countries – but MUCH more evident in the Philippines. he Philippine people love to be loved, they all enjoy being loved, being spoiled, being paid – without returning anything at all or returning as little as possible … selfishness is the name of such illness form a spiritual point of view and such selfishness, laziness and thus manifesting in lack of quality consciousness obviously leads to reduced income from insufficient quality of goods and services provided. uch is very apparent in the entire tourist industry – the Philippine tourist industry quality is one of the worst quality levels on all planet – comparable to India only. with the exception of Boracay islands tourist industry i have never seen any hotel resort or restaurant truly interested in top quality and to satisfaction of its customers. smiling and standing around – offering the least amount of efforts and expecting tipping for a smile instead of excellency in quality is the typical common behavior here in the Philippines.
Gourmet restaurants are virtually inexisting – with the exception of a VERY few ones – like the ones mentioned on Boracay island or Baguio city and a VERY FEW exceptions here and there in this most beautiful country – most beautiful by means of its FULL but widely UNUSED potential. one easy method to “measure love” toward OTHERS is to look at the food a country cooks. look at local food specialties, look at gourmet food originating in that country and commonly offered to the wide public in that country … ere in the Philippines there is NO gourmet food at all originating HERE and almost NO gourmet food at all offered by average restaurants or households. the way a person COOKS – is the way THAT person LOVES !! if an entire nation has NO gourmet food at all – if an entire nation cooks and offers only basic food – such as French fries, corn, rice, fried fish, fried chicken and a few other basic recipes – then this food palette directly reflects the variety of LOVE offered by women and men in THAT country !!! ompare this to the LOVE life in the Philippines and compare the Philippinas with European girls in Germany, Switzerland, Austria or France … then we clearly see, FEEL and experience that European Love life is nearly infinitely more developed or refined than the love potential of Asians in the Philippines and most other countries HERE. European girls are gourmet in food AND in love – such is valid for both – men and women in Europe. YES of course in average the European girls are the very best lovers on all planet in all ways possible.
Europeans have started to work hard and to imp0rove quality in most products or services already centuries ago. such development is proportional to love culture of a country !! Europe also has far less or no REAL poverty – at least no poverty in the sense or size we encounter poverty in India or some other Asian countries. IN countries like Europe we experience a common attitude and readiness to WORK long hours hard and the willingness to MAKE as happy as can be – hence in an environment or society where it is common to THINK about how to MAKE happy – all society progresses faster and easier – financially as well. n a country where hash browns are warmed up in micro wave, brewed coffee is kept kept warm for up to 6 hrs, vegetables typically are prepared boiled in water without any seasoning at all, where deserts and bakery is almost completely missing, where packed or processed food is preferred over fresh homemade food … what else but poverty can you expect. such poor food is the expression of the TRUE inner attitude and readiness TO MAKE others as happy as possible.
Such readiness to make happy is simple missing nearly to 100% here in the Philippines among the majority of Philippinos – some rare exceptions excluded – filippina girls and filippino men – are specialized in enjoying life – specialized in enjoying being loved and being spoiled by OTHERS. people – entire nations – can earn only as much as they are ready TO GIVE !! receiving money is receiving love – love can only be received AFTER having GIVEN FIRST an appropriate amount or quantity of LOVE to OTHERS. far smaller portion of Philippine poverty is caused b y rich ones pushing the original population away and out of their traditional living areas into more and more restricted smaller areas … for example fishermen are pushed / purchased away of their natural environment near or ON the beach to do their job most efficiently – fishing and providing food to millions of city / industry habitants. s a result of smaller and more remote / less favorable living quarters remaining to fishermen – their work is getting more and more difficult or even impossible. n certain tourist areas all beach is sold out to tourist industry and rich ones – leaving no or most difficult access to the sea to fishermen and leaving no true living quarters with garden for their families. the prices for land has risen to a level where normal mortals never can afford a piece of land with garden on the beach to do a work of fishermen. social injustice is CREATED by greed and stinginess of the richest of a country – including the expat society of that country. social injustice never is a natural occurrence – it alway is CREATED by conscious acceptance of that government. ismanagement by government – in the Philippines as much as in India and many other similar countries is the result of totally missing LOVE for their own PEOPLE !! in countries where top government officials after just a few years in office *somehow* suddenly are rich, have / own houses, cars and ten thousands or millions of dollars – it is obvious that such fortune never can ever be earned by any honest means – but by some open or hidden from of most extreme corruption – just have a look at the past history of the presidents Estrada or Marcos and other lower level government officials.
Lack of LOVE FOR all people in a country is of course nothing else but the very same attitude of the entire Philippine people – hence each people has the government it deserves … A people empty of TRUE love FOR others never can expect OTHERS – including the own government – to have TRUE love FOR them. such is the law of karma. In a selfish society all think of their own happiness – using and abusing their present position and situation for their own personal benefits before thinking of the global wellbeing of ALL mankind. s a final result of such selfish attitude no one else thinks of you – a selfish person always is excluded from the wellbeing of all creation as a direct result of the self created stinginess to LOVE others above all. loving others does include loving GOD – loving God is far more than just ACCEPTING God’s love – loving God also includes giving TO God – giving TO God does include actively spending money, resources, labor, care, time, … FOR the wellbeing of entire planet. such love FOR God does include above all – to keep nature CLEAN to avoid herbicides and pesticides – but instead to PROTECT, maintain and SUPPORT life and God made balance in nature – to love and care for all animals, plants and all nature in general – to maintain all forests and wild natural resources clean and FREE of influence of mankind – to preserve all nature with all animals, plants and minerals in the cleanest POSSIBLE way FOR our future generations to come – loving God also strictly MUST include LOVING OTHERS – out efforts in MAKING OTHERS as happy as can be is a directly proportional measure of OUR ture love FOR God.
If we truly LOVE God – then we also want to make ALL his OTHER children as happy as possible. the easiest way into the heart of another person is to love all his friends and all his loved ones at the very same time in full. the easiest way to PROVE lack of love is to exclude one or several others from your own love or to do or give less than the very best you can. one of the most complex source of poverty certainly is poverty caused by disasters or political instability … however disasters often are caused by mankinds lack of LOVE FOR nature – mankinds impact on ocean, environment and forests .. uch as abundant logging, environment pollution, dynamite fishing, changing the natural flow or rivers, changing natural beaches, breaking down reefs and many other human made changes in nature can and do lead to man-made disasters. such disasters finally is the ultimate result of lack of interest in God’s wellbeing and God’s creation. we have to FEEL AND thus KNOW the needs of NATURE to protect nature, to withdraw from manmade changes of nature. when landslids, avalanches and other major disasters destroy entire villages or regions – then such of most of the time due to lack of knowledge about the NEEDS and laws governing ALL creation.
WE as God’s children are to learn to live fully INTEGRATED INTO nature rather than impose ourselves to nature and environment. it is our privilege to be FREE children of God – it is OUR honor to SHOW God that we care for such a divine gift of love. other creatures MADE by God – such as MOST animals and ALL plants have NO freedom of such kind at all … the gift of love called FREEDOM is the single most valuable gift any eternal being ever can have – we have to PROVE that we can handle and maintain such divine freedome with an eternal life of LOVE toward all. ndustrial or material needs ARE TO BE secondary to ANY need of nature, environment OR creation in general !!!!! as to poverty caused by government or mismanagement on government level – we all have the government we chose and deserve. the government’s sole purpose is to SERVE and thus HELP ALL people – any other selfish manifestations by ANY government has to be stopped in a totally loving but STRONG way. people are to be strong – people are to prove strength by solving their problems IN DIVINE LOVE and thus FREE of any violence. eople have to PROVE the power of love by making wise choices and by proving to be FREE of any government influence. ALL people have to learn to live and prosper without any influence OR even worst – without ANY dependancy from ANY government or government like body or organization. all people have to work harder, more lovingly, more precisely, caring for all their entire land, nature, natural resources in love and thus with divine wisdom. wisdom applied by people dissolves any need for government. only weak ones need government – only weak ones follow orders. trong ones follow the path of love given by God – eternally. hence strong ones always have their roots IN God and as such all strong ones always make ALL their decisions in FULL and truly loving harmony WITH God. from the absolute point of view we ALL are ONE family – now and here on earth we are separated and split into many families – many countries and many more regions as a direct result of our very own ego and selfish decisions. as we grow our love toward all again – we manage to dissolve more and more rontiers that we humans created. as we dissolve our frontiers – we become again more and more one – step by step we will evolve again back to what we have been once a VERY long time ago – ONE family. however we will EVOLVE – we will WORK toward that goal and we thus will LEARN HOW TO LOVE to regain oneness in God. by doing so we will experience thousands or millions of various ways to make wrong AND right decisions until we reach a point of wisdom that allows us to KNOW the difference between right and wrong – between love and selfishness. ocial poverty imposed or created by an abusive government – regional OR national OR global is nothing else but an obstacle we NEED to learn to OVERCOME purely on the basis of true divine love. poverty caused by personal karma is even more complex but explained sufficiently in other chapters of the Cyberspace Ashram. those who have used and abused the weakness of OTHERS in earlier times – including in their own earlier INCARNATIONS may find themselves under the MOST unfavorable situation here and now on earth – situaitons comparable to those they created to others in earlier lives on earth or elsewehere in God’s creation. hose who create or HAVE poverty for personal gain or other resons may find themselves as victims of their own personal selfish decisions in the roles they have created FOR others. when you FEEL – for a few years, decades or an entire lifetime what you have done TO others – then latest you may start to THINK about decisions an dimpact YOU will have in your eternal future. what to do to solve poverty on a global or national or regional level ? ive freedom to all – freedom has been created and given BY God – and no human EVER has the authority to TAKE, reduce OR limit God given freedom. such freedom includes – freedom to travel – freedom to live where you love to live – freedom to work what you love to work – freedom to OWN ONE peace of land YOU personally care for with love and on a regular permanent basis – freedom to live FREE of any influence from OTHERS whoever – freedom to make all your OWN decisions ay honest prices to all – always be ready to pay same prices or salaries than YOU earn yourself do all the dirty work yourself – if you have excess work – give clean and qualified work to others and always allow all others to have same rights, same freedom, same benefits and same pay as you want for yourself all are equal in the heart and love of God your *slaves* are equal to you – hence you need to pay treat them like you are paid and treated your employees are equal to you as well … your children and parents are equal to you – older or younger, but equal by value and love your *enemies* are equal to you … ence love your enemies like you want to be loved by others practice this divine truth in all your life toward all creation – toward mankind of any age and any gender – male AND female, babies, children, adults and old age practice equal treatment and equal love and care toward all nations, all ethic groups, all religions, all mankind of any race, color and culture treat all nature, animals, plants and all planet or other planets of your future as a treasure and property given by God for the benefit and wellbeing of all creatures for all eternity. imit your property to what YOU really can care for with all your love from the bottom of your heart be honest with ALL – be ready to always share all – information, resources and love – with all use only as much as you really need of anything you belief to need be modest in your life be ready to reduce the resources needed presently by you to a level that can be practiced BY ALL mankind NOW AND eternally focus on development of divine love above all in all your life and work – divine love toward all in ALL situations of life ny action of yours that has an impact on OTHERS may be a restriction of THEIR wellbeing OR freedom – whatever OTHER hear, smell, feel, see FROM you IS THEIR business !! that means to crate a truly loving society we all have to withdraw our impact ON others to a level WITHIN our OWN property and household – unless we are asked to do otherwise by particular individual humans OR other beings. we exceed our limits when we use loudspeakers for our voices to impose our talk – such as in car loudspeakers, advertisements with loudspeakers, … e exceed our limits when we burn trash that poisons the air of our neighbors we exceed our limits when we create an ugly or dirty environment visible TO others living within our sight we exceed our limits when we *discipline* our children causing them to cry or LOOK sad or suffering we exceed our limits when we cause any kind of environment pollution that is stored OUTSIDE our very own property we exceed our limits when we distribute in any way bacteria, fungi, smell, toxins or similar substances outside our very own body or outside our very own property. t is our divine duty to keep ALL our surroundings pleasant, clean and healthy – including our very own AURA !! learn to increase your love toward ALL others by showing and proving your love in all possible ways. compare for example your garden … how many flowers are blossoming in your garden – the blossoms and beauty of your garden is LOVE FOR your neighbors. in the Philippines only a few people have any flowers they really CARE for – compared to most central European gardens where millions of difficult to GROW flowers blossom from early spring to ate fall – her ein a country where all flowers grow and blossom with very little care and work compared to the harsh and cold European climate – we see how little effort our Philippine children of God invest FOR others. always keep in mind that you only can benefit from as much or as little love FROM others as you give yourself – work more, work with more love, think about how to make others MORE happy in all you do – then one day poverty will be solved in your power of divine love. ometimes an entire generation needs to invest a lifetime of extraordinary efforts to prove true love – just look for example at the rice terraces in Sagada – northern Luzon. a result of extraordinary work and efforts invested by the population of an entire region during an entire lifecycle lasts until these very days and brings *fruits* even some 2000 years later. uch may be efforts needed to turn ALL Phillippine islands and regions into spiritual treasures of growing, blossoming love toward all – treasures of agriculture harvest and natural resources ever lasting as long as mankind needs this very planet before having leaned to love to the extent needed to return into ONE family in God again. Food and Poverty III. Food and Poverty About half of rural households live below poverty, while one-fifth of urban households fall below the poverty threshold (Table 10 [ PDF 116. 6KB | 1 pages ]).
More than 60 percent of expenditure of rural poor households is on food; about half of which is on cereals, which consist of rice and corn, but with the former having a much larger share. An almost similar structure is observed in the expenditure pattern of urban poor households. Furthermore, rural and urban poor households, landless agricultural laborers, small-scale farmers, and urban unskilled workers are principally net buyers of rice (David and Otsuka, 1994). These indicate that policy reforms on rice may potentially have significant impact on the consumption pattern of both rural and urban poor households, and therefore on poverty.
Grains production utilizes most of the agricultural resources. In particular, about 5 million hectares of arable land are devoted to rice and corn production, of which two-thirds are under palay. Furthermore, majority of rural population ? about 1. 8 million people ? depends on the grains sector. This implies that if the government fails to intervene because of budgetary and other administrative problems so that farm palay prices fall below the support price, the impact on farm incomes could be substantial. Understanding Poverty
More Articles October 2001. The Population Commission (Popcom) said there are 30. 6 million Filipinos or 6. 12 million families who are suffering from poverty. When I learned about this, I took consolation with the notion that I am not alone, yet I felt dismayed over the complacency of our national government officials who seem undisturbed by the fact that 40 percent of their constituents live below the poverty line throughout the country’s 78 provinces, 84 cities or 41,940 barangays. How can they sit back and relax?
There are about 77 million Filipinos today, and this number is growing by 2. 05 percent annually. This means that some 1. 5 million Filipinos are born every year, 600,000 of whom to poor parents. Some 32. 5 million Filipinos, comprising 66. 3 percent of the population, are considered matured enough to work. But 3. 3 million of these people, or 10. 1 percent of the workforce, cannot find jobs while 5. 2 million others, or 17. 7 percent, have no regular source of income. By international standards, these are critical problems.
The Taiwanese government is in the brink of panic, because the unemployment rate in that country just north of Luzon is threatening to hit 5 percent, year-on-year. Yet, our Filipino government officials are sitting relaxed inside posh restaurants and five-star hotels, as 8. 5 million Filipinos or 28 percent of the workforce are trying to figure out where to source the next meal for their families. According to the World Bank, the Philippines had a per capita GNP of US$1,050 in 1999, compared to China’s US$780, Indonesia’s US$600, Vietnam’s US$370, Lao’s US$290 or Cambodia’s US$280.
Yet, the Philippines’ poverty incidence rate of 40 percent is higher than China’s 3 percent, Indonesia’s 23 percent, Vietnam’s 37 percent, Lao’s 38 percent or Cambodia’s 36 percent. Why is that? Wealth in the Philippines is concentrated on the hands of the few, that’s why. It is the World Bank, and not the NDF, which gave such explanation. Now consider this, the prestigious Forbes magazine has included at least five Filipinos in the list of world billionaires (US dollars).
Let us rejoice! Imagine, highly industrial and welfare states like France, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden do not have a single representative to the billionaires’ circle. Among Southeast Asian countries, poverty incidence is most extreme in the Philippines where some 15. 3 million Filipinos (half of the poor population) wake up every morning without food on the table. These people are called subsistence individuals or whose income cannot provide for basic food requirements.
Popcom’s data is even conservative because in its interpretation, a family of six earning a total of P72,000 a year is not considered poor. In contrast, a study conducted by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) pegged the minimum income that a family of six must earn annually at P191,874 in order to live decently in Metro Manila. The labor sector has been demanding for a P125 daily wage hike or 50 percent of the current level but the group of employers claimed that such wage adjustment would force many establishments out of business.
Listening more to the rhetoric of the rich rather than to the howl of the poor, the Regional Tripartite Wage Board has approved only a P30 daily wage increase in the metropolis. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) event want us to believe that the previous minimum daily wage of US$5 (P250) in Manila is much higher than China’s US$1. Ironically, the Philippines reported a poverty incidence rate of 40 percent, much higher than China’s 3 percent. What makes things more difficult for us is the high prices of commodities.
The country’s inflation rate, estimated at 6 to 7 percent annually, is the highest in Asia. Japan, a super rich country, is ironically having a deflation. Let us make some computation. A person who is covered by the minimum wage would not take home P250 a day. Most likely, the wage, after tax and pension deductions, on top of travel and meal expenses, would amount to something like P150. A person who passes by a fastfood center, which is not in anyway a luxurious restaurant, might spend at least P50, or 33 percent of his take-home income on a roll of rice and a fried chicken wing.
That explains his purchasing power. Imagine spending all of your daily income in just three meals at an inexpensive restaurant. Food is supposed to account for less than 20 percent of a man’s expenses. While it might be true that a P125 daily wage adjustment will be bad for business (the Central Banks warned it would push inflation rate to 18 percent), this might be the only option that the poor has against poverty. Unless the government can do something like bringing the prices of food and other basic commodities, there is no other recourse but to increase the poor’s purchasing power.
The government needs to do its own computation, and put some system in managing the affairs of the nation. Sadly, it seems that our government officials haven’t learned anything from the past. Only last year, about 500 people were killed when a 50-meter pile of garbage collapsed on their makeshift houses in a dumpsite in Quezon City. This was the absolute face of poverty, whose image failed to instill understanding among our numb leaders. Now, who could blame the 20,000 protesters who stormed to Malacanang Palace last May 1.
The people in the media, who were not even aware on what the attack was about, had the guts to brand these protesters a mob of poor and undisciplined warriors. It also seems that the current crop of leaders have nothing to offer, and one opposition senator even admitted that in 30 years, the Philippines will not even reach the level of Thailand, which I understand, is still a poor country. This is anything but encouraging. Imagine spending the next 30 years of your life in poverty (if the tension in Central Asia does not lead into another world war, of course).
We wait for a day that one leader will rise to change our mindset and status in life. Someone who will promise to turn the Philippines into a country of mostly rich people in his lifetime and can convince us that he really can. Poverty In Philippines Introduction: This study is about the economic, political and socio- cultural conditions of the Urban Poor. Urban poor has become an interesting topic now days since it is very relevant to modern society. Poverty tends to be the greatest ill that plagues the Filipino as a society. The poor ranges from poor, very poor, and to the very, very poor.
The topic URBAN POOR was selected from a group of topics given and then given emphasis by the author according to the relevance of this specific group in today’s world. Each condition is specifically analyzed in different aspects and parts to further understand the study. In doing so, one will be able to broaden one’s ideas and analysis in certain conditions in relation to the topic about Urban poor. This will also have an analysis of their general condition using a theory application- which most probably is CONFLICT THEORY, a theory discussed in class with relation to the Sociological Theories presented.
This paper was developed as a requirement and further study of the Sociological Theories presented in class and as a meaningful output of all the lectures and discussions that happened during class. Analysis was done by choosing a theoretical orientation from the ones discussed in class. Students and professionals are the intended audiences of this study. This study will hopefully be of help in the development of concrete analysis and plans not just towards the Sociological development of the urban poor, but of the holistic development as well.
The informations contained in this study were based on researches provided by related literature and on- line based sources, more of secondary sources. Sources related to the study are referred to the bibliography at the end of the study. Conclusions are from the author of the text, as a product of understanding from the related sources. With all the informations and analysis represented, may this hopefully, a stepping stone in solving problems of today’s society….