Want to join the CNG?

ITS act must have been so serious that Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino has tapped the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to investigate an organization that claims to be a Duterte supporter but is collecting fees from the indigents.

According to Dino, this organization allegedly collects a fee of P200 to P300 from the indigent sector on the promise that they can avail of the housing program and livelihood benefit from the government.

The Department of Social Welfare and Department (DSWD) and the National Housing Authority (NHA) are agencies under the Office of the President that handles social welfare benefits and the government’s housing programs, respectively.

An organization outside of government reduce the cost through eliminating some of their employees. Eventually, this may lead to the increase of unemployment rate.

In order to prevent this, the government can use another solution after imposing the minimum wage. The government can give financial aid to the people who are unemployed, like that of the 4Ps. With this aid, an individual can be educated, which gives them the incentive to work and gives them the opportunity to be employed. In fact, the Gawad Kalinga is using the method of educating people in poverty in order to reduce poverty in the Philippines.

However, aid also has negative aspects. First of all, the financial aid given to the unemployed can be incorrectly used. For example, they can use the money to purchase drugs or smoking, which affects the society negatively (negative externality of consumption).

Furthermore, when the government gives these benefits, the government budget will decrease and the government won’t be able to use money for other purposes e.g. improvement of the infrastructure of the country.

However, with these negative effects of each of the solutions, I believe that the positive effects, people getting out of poverty, outweigh the negative effects.

-o0oThis second essay is written by James (Jewook) that collects money supposedly in exchange for government benefits is simply misrepresentation, a punishable act under the Revised Penal Code.

This group does not only erode the people’s trust in President Duterte but also affects Dino’s office.

-o0oWhat is the age requirement to join the Citizen’s National Guard (CNG) that Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre III organized? I ask because I might join it if a senior citizen like me would qualify. But it’s funny that after Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas failed in his proposal to create the Legislative Police, here comes Secretary Aguirre organizing a CNG to defend the President. Jeong and he also writes about NO POVERTY.

“There are no poorness but poverty left in modern society”.

I believe this as a true, hard sentence that frankly exposes the problem of modern society.

What are the differences between poorness and poverty?

Well, poor is an economic state, but poverty includes psychological, or in layman’s term a “mindset”. At least for the term of poorness, there is a space for a “breath”, but for poverty it seems like a hopeless quandary like a trackless desert.

The memory of 1960s and 1970s were poor. But there was a sign of warmth in it. People were hungry but they were not alone. However, people who are poor in these days are definitely alone compared to those who were back in the 60s and 70s. Before, people were trying to lean on each other to get over their hump, but not anymore. In this state, poverty makes human life so miserable and strenuous.

In modern society, economic capacity of individual is an inevitable factor to consider in discussing poverty typically due to our economic structural system and poverty can newly defined as a severe constraint on normal living. It is a forced reduction in consumption, due to insufficient income and menacing surrounding conditions.

The extreme poverty leads to permanent and inescapable hunger, insufficient and unhealthy diet. Hunger and malnutrition weaken the body, the mind and the capability to work. It becomes a trap because

For Aguirre, enemies of the State are: the Islamic State-inspired terrorism; the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army; drug cartels; the “seditious political opposition” or “Yellowtards” and foreign intelligence agencies “generating international support for regime change.” But Mr. Justice Secretary, your CNG only drags down the President because of your insecurity.

I am certain a hundred times that President Duterte will stay in office until his term ends, except for natural cause. His trust rating may have gone down but this does not mean that majority of the Filipinos don’t want him to complete his term.

The President has the entire Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police at his beck and call when emergency arises to defend the State and the duly elected officials. Hence, a CNG is uncalled for. SSCebu of feedbacks between low occupability, low productivity, low income and hunger.

International aid is directed towards countries where hunger is widespread, but these aids are usually insufficient and not timely for people to overcome the poverty trap, and the dependence of the poor from the will of the donor.

Aside from this, there are other policies that the countries’ governments can implement.

First is to reduce unemployment. Unemployment is a major cause of poverty because the unemployed have little income, relying on state benefits. Unemployment can be reduced through both supply-side policies, such as free training schemes for those who are structurally unemployed.

Second, they can use a more realistic progressive tax system. This system tends to charge higher income tax rates to those in high-income levels. This can be an effective way for reducing relative poverty.

However, critics argue higher income taxes may create a disincentive to work, leading to less output. This is because higher tax makes work less attractive and reduces the opportunity cost of leisure. Therefore, people may work less and enjoy more leisure. This is known as the substitution effect.

Yes, not every policy is efficient. That is the real problem of the “poverty” in modern society. This is the right time for governments and other non-governmental organizations around the world like the UN to think on how to end this vicious cycle.