Easing poverty
It’s not an accurate gauge of the national poverty level. Still, this doesn’t minimize the significance of the latest Social Weather Stations survey, which showed an increase in the number of Filipinos who rated themselves poor.
Household incomes may not be going down in real terms, but purchasing power has shrunk considerably since the start of the year. Mismanagement of the supply of cheap rice as well as the combination of hefty excise taxes on fuel and power together with soaring world crude oil prices and a weaker peso have led to the highest inflation rate in years, with prices seen to go even higher during the Christmas season.
State cash dole-outs, conditional and unconditional, cannot make up for the shrinkage in purchasing power. By the time the administration and its economic managers end their state of denial on the impact of the fuel excise tax on inflation, a significant number of Filipinos would have been added to the ranks of those who rate themselves poor.
Now defenders of the onerous fuel tax are trying to save it from suspension or outright scrapping by suggesting the suspension only of its increase in January under the second phase of TRAIN, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion. With accelerated, inclusive growth still in the uncertain future, however, people will be listening to those who point out that if they are feeling poorer this holiday season, TRAIN 1 and its proponents deserve much of the blame.
Inflation is not the only reason why people rate themselves poor. The lack of meaningful jobs and sustainable livelihood opportunities as well as underemployment contribute to poverty.
The survey results should spur heightened efforts to create the environment necessary for job creation. Of equal importance is the empowerment of Filipinos to realize their full potential, through quality education and skills training. Education equips the poorest of the poor with the tools necessary to get out of poverty. Such tools will be with the individual for life. After being liberated from poverty, one must stay out of it, never to return.