Chapter 1

Introduction

The

estimates

of

poverty

incidence

in

the Philippines per province as of 2012. The

national average is 22.3%, virtually unchanged
from 2006's 23.4%. Poverty remains a critical
social

problem

that

needs

to

be

addressed. Philippines' poverty line marks a per

capita
[1]

income

of

16,841

pesos

year.

According to the data from the National

Statistical Coordination Board, more than onequarter (27.9%) of the population fell below
the poverty line the first semester of 2012, an
approximate 1 per cent increase since 2009.
[2]

This figure is a slightly lower figure as compared to the 33.1% in 1991. [3]
The decline in poverty has been slow and uneven, much slower than

neighboring countries who experienced broadly similar numbers in the 1980s,

[4]

such as People's Republic of China (PRC), Thailand, Indonesia (where the

poverty level lies at 8.5%) or Vietnam (13.5%). This shows that the incidence of
poverty has remained significantly high as compared to other countries for almost
a decade. The unevenness of the decline has been attributed to a large range of
income brackets across regions and sectors, and unmanaged population growth.
The Philippines poverty rate is roughly the same level as Haiti.[4]
The government planned to eradicate poverty as stated in the Philippines
Development Plan 2011-2016 (PDP). The PDP for those six years are an annual
economic growth of 7-8% and the achievement of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). Under the MDGs, Philippines committed itself to halving extreme
poverty from a level of 33.1% in 1991 to 16.6% by 2015. [4]

RAPID POPULATION GROWTH

Given that the population of the Philippines is increasing at a rapid rate of
1.7% per year, this can be translated as an increase of more than 5,000 people
daily in a country that already has an increase of more than four million poor
people since 1985.[5] In 1985, the absolute number of people living in poverty was
26.5 million. This increased to 30.4 million in 2000 and from 2006 to 2009,
increased by almost 970,000 Filipinos from 22.2 million to 23.1 million. [5]
As the Philippines has financially limited resources and a high poverty
rate, the rapid increase in population has become a problem because there is
insufficient resources to support the population, which leaves much fewer
resources to improve the economy. From 2003 to 2006, even though the
Philippines experienced above-average economic growth, the poverty incidence
increased as a result of its population growth rate. [6]
UNEMPLOYMENT
Poverty reduction has not kept up with GDP growth rates, largely due to
the high unemployment rate, high inflation rate and wide income inequality. The
official rate of unemployment for 2012 in the Philippines was 6.8 per cent. [7]

NOTES
1

Leland

Joseph

R.

Dela

Cruz, 2009

Philippine

Poverty,

February

2011, http://www.slideshare.net/ldelacruz/poverty-situationer-2011-8294418 (acc

essed February 15, 2012).
2

Calderon, Justin (30 April 2013). "How feudalism will undo the Philippine

elections". Inside Investor. Retrieved 1 May 2013.

3

Romulo

A.

Virola,

2009

Official

Poverty

Statistics,

February

2011, http://www.nscb.gov.ph/poverty/2009/Presentation_RAVirola.pdf (accessed

February 15, 2012).
4

Jump up to:a b c d Philippines Development Plan 2011-2016 (Philippines 2011)

Asian Development Bank, Poverty in the Philippines: Causes, Constraints and

opportunities (Asian Development Bank, 2009).

6

Philipinas Natin, In Pursuit of Inclusive Growth.

"Philippine job growth lowest in ASEAN-5". Investvine.com. 2013-02-11.

Retrieved 2013-03-15.

Chapter 2
Natural Causes

THE CYCLE OF POVERTY AND NATURAL DISASTERS

Natural catastrophes are as much a result of poverty and weak

government as plate tectonics and weather - thats why they hit the world's poor
hardest.

Disastrous floods, storms, earthquakes and droughts are twice as frequent

as in the 1980s, according to the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of
Disasters (CRED). Most striking is the huge jump in weather-related disasters.
But what really explains this extraordinary acceleration? The difference
between hazards and disaster cyclones, earthquakes, and erupting volcanoes
are hazards, but they only become deadly disasters when they happen in
vulnerable areas where people have few defenses. It only becomes a disaster
when you introduce poverty, says Ian Bray, spokesman for UK charity Oxfam.
That is why the 2010 Haiti earthquake killed over 200,000 people while the
much stronger Chilean tremor a few weeks later claimed fewer than 500 lives.
And why the hurricanes, storms and floods that also regularly batter Haiti kill
4

more than 10 times as many people there than in neighboring, richer Dominican
Republic.
Weak infrastructure, crumbling buildings, rapid population growth, poor
governance, precarious rural livelihoods and ecosystem decline all underpin the
rapid expansion of disaster risk in the developing world.
Climate change makes things worse, skewing disaster impacts even more
towards poorer communities.

MATCHING DISASTER RISKS TO COUNTRY TYPES

The UN Development Program (UNDP) pinpoints which kinds of countries
are most exposed to particular disaster types in its report 'Reducing Disaster
Risk'. This concludes:

Earthquakes hit hardest in countries with high urban growth rates, like
China and Indonesia.

Tropical cyclones do most damage in countries with a high percentage of

arable land, such as Myanmar and the Philippines.

Floods cause most problems in countries with low Gross Domestic

Product (GDP) per capita, like Bangladesh and India/

The UNDP has also found that while just 11% of people exposed to
natural hazards live in poor countries, those nations suffer 53% of total
deaths.

And the poor - through ignorance and desperation - sometimes contribute

to their own downfall by deforesting hillsides or over-cultivating farmland,
leading to new cycles of flood, drought or landslides.

Meanwhile, rapid, uncontrolled urbanization in the developing world is

creating new disaster risks.
In the next 20 years the worlds population will grow by about 2 billion

people and all the growth will occur in cities in the developing world, warns Brian

Tucker, president of NGO Geohazards International. That results in more people

in shoddily-built buildings.

BETTER GOVERNANCE NEEDED

Knowing these risk factors means authorities must better plan how to
protect people and develop their economies more safely - rather than blaming
acts of God and relying on disaster relief.
The Dutch have shown it is possible, with proper planning and political
will, to contain natural hazards, in their case storm surges and flooding rivers.
The Bangladeshis too, in a more low-tech way, have set up early warning
systems for floods and cyclones based on volunteers with bicycles and
megaphones, and text message alerts.
By contrast, it wasnt the weather that turned drought into famine in
Congo, Kenya and Sudan but rather armed conflict and weak food distribution
networks.
And in China corrupt builders and officials have been blamed for the high
death toll in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Good progress is also being made in other areas, reports the UNDP.
such as "upgrading squatter settlements, strengthening rural livelihoods,
protecting ecosystems, and using microfinance, micro-insurance".
The fact is that ancient flood myths owe more to their civilizations
proximity to large rivers than to divine intervention. Back then technology could
not contain the floodwaters.
Today it can, but not all communities can pay for it. It is our responsibility
to fix that and make sure natural hazards no longer turn into natural disasters. -James Tulloch

NOTES

http://knowledge.allianz.com/environment/natural_disasters/?569/the-cycle-of-

poverty-and-natural-disasters

Chapter 3
Economic Causes

Greedy business contributes to PH poverty

Philippine Daily Inquirer 10:25 PM | Thursday, October 24th, 2013

I am not an economist, but it seems obvious that the way things are
usually done in this country has only led to more poverty (as the poverty
statistics show).
Things may look fair and square in the eyes of the law, but there are
so many laws that unduly benefit business owners at the expense of
employees. To be sure, there are business establishments that provide all
the required benefits. What I dont understand is why the businessmen
who dutifully pay for their employees rightful benefits dont speak up to
egg errant business entities into complying with the law and give their
workers the benefits due them. After all, any violation of the law on labor
8

benefits by a business entity effectively penalizes business establishments

that incur higher business costs for complying with the law.
Then there is government. It gets defensive when presented with the
unchanging, if worsening, poverty picture, yet it doesnt stop the unfair
practices that make rich, unscrupulous employers richer because they
pocket what is due their workers, thus further widening the gap between
the rich and the poor.
Also, there is the Bureau of Internal Revenue which cannot reach its
collection targets. Why should it be puzzled by its failure? How can it hit its
target when people do not have to pay or remain exempt from paying
income tax because of the unfair practices of their employers?
It seems that the government has become so inured or manhid,
such that it sees nothing wrong with the malpractices in its bureaucracy
and ranks.
I wish the government would open its eyes to the many injustices in
our society. Only then could we, a truly a rich nation with talented people
just waiting for the right government support, all move forward. Until then,
greed

will

continue

to

trump

fairness

and

justice.

Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/63971/greedy-business-contributesto-ph-poverty#ixzz3ZVT1hlCY

PH poverty reduction remains dismal, says UN

Jerry E. Esplanada
Philippine Daily Inquirer 10:36 AM | Sunday, October 28th, 2012

JAKARTA The Philippines performance in meeting its Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) has remained
dismal with barely three years into the
deadline to achieve the objectives set by
United Nations member-states, according
to a UN report.
The

Asian-Pacific

Regional

MDG

Report:

Accelerating Equitable Achievement of the MDGs was one of several

reports cited by the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2012, a joint publication of

10

the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the UN Economic
and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP).
The 134-page publication was released during the just-concluded
5th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, held in
Yogyakarta, some 430 kilometers southeast of the Indonesian capital.
The UN report on the MDGs disclosed, among others, that the
Philippines was years behind on most of its development objectives.
Of the seven MDGs, the country got failing grades in four
eradicating extreme poverty, achieving universal primary education,
reducing child mortality and sustaining maternal health.
On the other hand, it received favorable scores in gender equality,
reducing

tuberculosis

and

HIV-AIDS

prevalence

and

ensuring environmental sustainability.

The UN described as regressing and no progress the Philippines
performance in education-related objectives, and slow in dealing with
anti-poverty reduction, child mortality reduction, as well as maternal health
problems.
But it cited the country for being an early achiever in gender
equality, the campaign against TB and environmental issues like forest
cover, protected areas, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
The Philippines was on track in other environment-related issues
like basic sanitation and use of safe drinking water, it also said.
The nine other Association of Southeast Asian Nations memberstates also scored regressing and no progress ratings for some of their
MDG targets: Indonesia, HIV-AIDS and forest cover; Laos, HIV-AIDS and
TB, and forest cover and carbon dioxide emissions; Cambodia, education
and environment; Brunei Darussalam, environment; Malaysia, forest cover
and carbon dioxide emissions; Vietnam, carbon dioxide emissions;
Myanmar, forest cover and carbon dioxide emissions; Thailand, education,
11

child mortality, forest cover and carbon dioxide emissions; and Singapore,
maternal health.
According to the UNISDR and ESCAP report, establishing direct
links between MDGs and disasters is not an easy task, considering the
complex interplay of the various types of economic, social, urban and
environmental vulnerabilities.
However, the report said, several recent case studies clearly show
the impact of disasters on several MDGs.
When cyclone Sid struck Bangladesh in 2007, its impacts on the
economy amounted to $1.67 billion. Damage and losses of $925 million in
the social sector affected MDGs like achieving universal primary education,
reducing child mortality and combating HIV-AIDs and malaria and TB., it
said.
Damage and losses in the production sector adversely affected
other MDGs, including eradicating poverty, while losses in infrastructure
affected MDG no. 7, or ensuring environmental sustainability.
In Pakistan, the report noted that there was sufficient damage and
loss data from several post-disaster needs assessments of successive
disasters with impacts on the education sector.
While the south Asian country was on track to realize the MDG
indicator for primary enrolment in schools based on its statistical trend in
2004, slower progress was recorded in 2008 and 2009, said the report.
It follows that the disasters resulted in the reduced quality, quantity
and prevailing level of education. Development efforts to attain MDG
targets without appropriate risk reduction measures can unintentionally
increase levels of vulnerability and consequential disaster risks, it further
said.

12

The agency noted that the years of implementing MDGs have

resulted in important progress towards reducing global disparities and the
risks of disasters.
Each year, Southeast Asia suffers damage in excess of $4.4 billion,
or about 0.2 percent of the regions gross domestic product from disaster
losses associated with floods, typhoons, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions
and droughts.
Annual economic losses due to disasters have been found to be the
highest for the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam, in that order, while
Singapore and Brunei present the lowest losses, said the same report.
Margareta Wahlstrom, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moons special
representative on disaster risk reduction, has noted countries were
increasingly embracing the view that minimizing disaster risk was essential
for achieving sustainable development.
Many have started to take action to build the resilience of
communities, but more needs to be done to protect various population
segments that are vulnerable to disasters, such as women, children,
people with disabilities and the aged as very little concerted efforts have
been made to deal with these populations, she said.
Wahlstrom urged governments to focus on development strategies
that reduce exposure to hazards and invest more in disaster risk reduction
policies to achieve greater resilience against disasters.
Read

more:

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/54414/ph-poverty-reduction-

remains-dismal-says-un#ixzz3ZVT88G1U

13

Chapter 4
Political Causes

Entrenched factors associated with poverty:

Colonial Histories: One of the most important barriers to
development in poor countries is lack of uniform, basic infrastructure, such
as roads and means of communication. Some development scholars have
identified colonial history as an important contributor to the current
situation. In most countries with a history of colonization, the colonizers
developed local economies to facilitate the expropriation of resources for
their own economic growth and development.
14

Centralization of Power: In many developing countries, political

power is disproportionately centralized. Instead of having a network of
political

representatives

distributed

equally

throughout

society,

in

centralized systems of governance one major party, politician, or region is

responsible for decision-making throughout the country. This often causes
development problems. For example, in these situations politicians make
decisions about places that they are unfamiliar with, lacking sufficient
knowledge about the context to design effective and appropriate policies
and programs.
Corruption: Corruption often accompanies centralization of power,
when leaders are not accountable to those they serve. Most directly,
corruption inhibits development when leaders help themselves to money
that would otherwise be used for development projects. In other cases,
leaders reward political support by providing services to their followers.

Does Corruption Create Poverty?

Bribery and sweetheart deals are a curse
for democracy and civil society.
By Walden Bello, April 21, 2010
The issue of corruption resonates in developing countries. In the
Philippines, for instance, the slogan of the coalition that is likely to win the 2010
presidential elections is Without corrupt officials, there are no poor people.
Not surprisingly, the international financial institutions have weighed in.
The World Bank has made good governance a major thrust of its
work, asserting that the World Bank Group focus on governance and
anticorruption (GAC) follows from its mandate to reduce poverty a capable
15

and accountable state creates opportunities for poor people, provides better
services, and improves development outcomes.
Because it erodes trust in government, corruption must certainly be
condemned and corrupt officials resolutely prosecuted. Corruption also weakens
the moral bonds of civil society on which democratic practices and processes
rest. But although research suggests it has some bearing on the spread of
poverty, corruption is not the principal cause of poverty and economic stagnation,
popular opinion notwithstanding.
World Bank and Transparency International data show that the Philippines
and China exhibit the same level of corruption, yet China grew by 10.3 percent
per year between 1990 and 2000, while the Philippines grew by only 3.3 percent.
Moreover, as a recent study by Shaomin Lee and Judy Wu shows, China is not
alone; there are other countries that have relatively high corruption and high
growth rates.
Limits of a Hegemonic Narrative
The corruption-causes-poverty narrative has become so hegemonic that
it has often marginalized policy issues from political discourse. This narrative
appeals to the elite and middle class, which dominate the shaping of public
opinion. Its also a safe language of political competition among politicians.
Political leaders can deploy accusations of corruption against one another for
electoral effect without resorting to the destabilizing discourse of class.
Yet this narrative of corruption has increasingly less appeal for the poorer
classes. Despite the corruption that marked his reign, Joseph Estrada is running
a respectable third in the presidential contest in the Philippines, with solid support
among many urban poor communities. But it is perhaps in Thailand where lower
classes have most decisively rejected the corruption discourse, which the elites
and Bangkok-based middle class deployed to oust Thaksin Shinawatra from the
premiership in 2006.
While in power, Thaksin brazenly used his office to enlarge his corporate
empire. But the rural masses and urban lower classes the base of the so16

called Red Shirts have ignored this corruption and are fighting to restore his
coalition to power. They remember the Thaksin period from 2001 to 2006 as a
golden time. Thailand recovered from the Asian financial crisis after Thaksin
kicked out the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Thai leader promoted
expansionary policies with a redistributive dimension, such as cheap universal
health care, a one-million-baht development fund for each town, and a
moratorium on farmers servicing of their debt. These policies made a difference
in their lives.
Thaksins Red Shirts are probably right in their implicit assessment that
pro-people policies are more decisive than corruption when it comes to
addressing poverty. Indeed, in Thailand and elsewhere, clean-cut technocrats
have probably been responsible for greater poverty than the most corrupt
politicians. The corruption-causes-poverty discourse is no doubt popular with
elites and international financial institutions because it serves as a smokescreen
for the structural causes of poverty, and stagnation and wrong policy choices of
the more transparent technocrats.

The Philippine Case

The case of the Philippines since 1986 illustrates the greater explanatory
power of the wrong-policy narrative than the corruption narrative. According to
an ahistorical narrative, massive corruption suffocated the promise of the postMarcos democratic republic. In contrast, the wrong-policy narrative locates the
key causes of Philippine underdevelopment and poverty in historical events and
developments.
The complex of policies that pushed the Philippines into the economic
quagmire over the last 30 years can be summed up by a formidable term:
structural adjustment. Also known as neoliberal restructuring, it involves
prioritizing debt repayment, conservative macroeconomic management, huge
cutbacks in government spending, trade and financial liberalization, privatization
17

and deregulation, and export-oriented production. Structural adjustment came to

the Philippines courtesy of the World Bank, the IMF, and the World Trade
Organization (WTO), but local technocrats and economists internalized and
disseminated the doctrine.
Corazon Aquino was personally honest indeed the epitome of noncorruption and her contribution to the reestablishment of democracy was
indispensable. But her acceptance of the IMFs demand to prioritize debt
repayment over development brought about a decade of stagnation and
continuing poverty. Interest payments as a percentage of total government
expenditures went from 7 percent in 1980 to 28 percent in 1994. Capital
expenditures, on the other hand, plunged from 26 percent to 16 percent. Since
government is the biggest investor in the Philippines indeed in any economy
the radical stripping away of capital expenditures helps explain the stagnant 1
percent average yearly growth in gross domestic product in the 1980s, and the
2.3 percent rate in the first half of the 1990s.
In contrast, the Philippines Southeast Asian neighbors ignored the IMFs
prescriptions. They limited debt servicing while ramping up government capital
expenditures in support of growth. Not surprisingly, they grew by 6 to 10 percent
from 1985 to 1995, attracting massive Japanese investment, while the
Philippines barely grew and gained the reputation of a depressed market that
repelled investors.
When Aquinos successor, Fidel Ramos, came to power in 1992, the main
agenda of his technocrats was to bring down all tariffs to 05 percent and bring
the Philippines into the WTO and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), moves
intended to make trade liberalization irreversible. A pick-up in the growth rate in
the early years of Ramos sparked hope, but the green shoots were short-lived.
Another neoliberal policy, financial liberalization, crushed this early promise. The
elimination of foreign exchange controls and speculative investment restrictions
attracted billions of dollars from 1993-1997. But this also meant that when panic
hit Asian foreign investors in summer 1997, the same lack of capital controls
facilitated the stampede of billions of dollars from the country in a few short
18

weeks. This capital flight pushed the economy into recession and stagnation in
the next few years.
The administration of the next president, Joseph Estrada, did not reverse
course, and under the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, neoliberal policies
continued to reign. Over the next few years, the Philippine government instituted
new liberalization measures on the trade front, entering into free-trade
agreements with Japan and China despite clear evidence that trade liberalization
was destroying the two pillars of the economy: industry and agriculture. Radical
unilateral trade liberalization severely destabilized the Philippine manufacturing
sector. The number of textile and garments firms, for instance, drastically
reduced from 200 in 1970 to 10 in recent years. As one of Arroyos finance
secretaries admitted, Theres an uneven implementation of trade liberalization,
which was to our disadvantage. While he speculated that consumers might have
benefited from the tariff liberalization, he acknowledged that it has killed so
many local industries.
As for agriculture, the liberalization of the countrys agricultural trade after
the country joined the WTO in 1995 transformed the Philippines from a net foodexporting country into a net food-importing country after the mid-1990s. This year
the China ASEAN Trade Agreement (CAFTA), negotiated by the Arroyo
administration, goes into effect, and the prospect of cheap Chinese produce
flooding the Philippines has made Filipino vegetable farmers fatalistic about their
survival.
During the long Arroyo reign, the debt-repayment-oriented macroeconomic
management policy that came with structural adjustment stifled the economy.
With 20-25 percent of the national budget reserved for debt service payments
because of the draconian Automatic Appropriations Law, government finances
were in a state of permanent and widening deficit, which the administration tried
to solve by contracting more loans. Indeed, the Arroyo administration contracted
more loans than the previous three administrations combined.
When the deficit reached gargantuan proportions, the government refused
to declare a debt moratorium or at least renegotiate debt repayment terms to
19

make them less punitive. At the same time, the administration did not have the
political will to force the rich to take the brunt of bridging the deficit, by increasing
taxes on their income and improving revenue collection. Under pressure from the
IMF, the government levied this burden on the poor and the middle class by
adopting an expanded value added tax (EVAT) of 12 percent on purchases.
Commercial establishments passed on this tax to poor and middle-class
consumers, forcing them to cut back on consumption. This then boomeranged
back on small merchants and entrepreneurs in the form of reduced profits,
forcing many out of business.
The straitjacket of conservative macroeconomic management, trade and
financial liberalization, as well as a subservient debt policy, kept the economy
from expanding significantly. As a result, the percentage of the population living
in poverty increased from 30 to 33 percent between 2003 and 2006, according to
World Bank figures. By 2006, there were more poor people in the Philippines
than at any other time in the countrys history.
Policy and Poverty in the Third World
The Philippine story is paradigmatic. Many countries in Latin America,
Africa, and Asia saw the same story unfold. Taking advantage of the Third World
debt crisis, the IMF and the World Bank imposed structural adjustment in over 70
developing countries in the course of the 1980s. Trade liberalization followed
adjustment in the 1990s as the WTO, and later rich countries, dragooned
developing countries into free-trade agreements.
Because of this trade liberalization, gains in economic growth and poverty
reduction posted by developing countries in the 1960s and 1970s had
disappeared by the 1980s and 1990s. In practically all structurally adjusted
countries, trade liberalization wiped out huge swathes of industry, and countries
enjoying a surplus in agricultural trade became deficit countries. By the beginning
of the millennium, the number of people living in extreme poverty had increased
globally by 28 million from the decade before. The number of poor increased in
Latin America and the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe, the Arab states,
20

and sub-Saharan Africa. The reduction in the number of the worlds poor mainly
occurred in China and countries in East Asia, which spurned structural
readjustment policies and trade liberalization multilateral institutions and local
neoliberal technocrats imposed other developing economies.
China and the rapidly growing newly industrializing countries of East and
Southeast Asia, where most of the global reduction in poverty took place, were
marked by high degrees of corruption. The decisive difference between their
performance and that of countries subjected to structural adjustment was not
corruption but economic policy.
Despite its malign effect on democracy and civil society, corruption is not
the main cause of poverty. The anti poverty, anti-corruption crusades that so
enamor the middle classes and the World Bank will not meet the challenge of
poverty. Bad economic policies create and entrench poverty. Unless and until we
reverse

the

policies

of structural

adjustment,

trade

liberalization,

and

conservative macroeconomic management, we will not escape the poverty trap.

Ombudsman, ex-COA chief P9.8 M richer

By Michael Punongbayan | Philippine Star 3 hours ago

Former Commission on Audit (COA) chairman Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan

grew richer by P9.830 million from the time of her appointment in February 2011
to the completion of her four-year term in February 2015.

21

Ombudsman

Conchita

Carpio-

Morales, who was appointed in July 2011

for a seven-year term, also got wealthier by
P9.890 million during the past four years.
Copies of their latest statements of
assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs)
obtained by The STAR from the Office of
the Ombudsman showed that much of the
increase in their net worth was due to the
rising value of their stock investments.
Tans SALNs from 2012 to 2014 revealed that when she assumed her post
as the countrys chief auditor four years ago, she had a net worth of P65.731
million.
She declared then the total value of her real properties at P36.058 million
and personal properties at P45.543 million with total liabilities of P15.870 million.
In 2013, her net worth went up to P68.020 million largely on higher value
of her stock investments. She declared the same number of real and personal
properties, including a vehicle valued only at P383,000.
In her 2014 SALN filed two months after she finished her term as COA
chair, Tan said she is now worth P75.562 million, boosted largely by her stock
investments valued at P47.842 million.
She declared the same 13 real properties in Mandaluyong, Tagaytay City,
Antipolo in Rizal, Trece Martirez in Cavite, Lipa City in Batangas, Cagayan and
Orlando in Florida, USA.
Morales, for her part, declared a net worth of P40.749 million upon
assuming office in July 2011 P14.109 million in real properties, P29.040 in
personal properties and liabilities worth P2.4 million representing amortization for
a condominium unit.
In 2012, her self-declared value went up to P43.362 million because of
slight increases in her real and personal properties and a reduction in her
liabilities.
22

By 2013, Morales had cleared herself of debt and increased her net worth
to P48.962 million mainly because of the increase in the value of her real
properties to P19.639 million.

Chapter 5
Social Causes

Warfare: Warfare contributes to more entrenched poverty by

diverting scarce resources from fighting poverty to maintaining a military.
Take, for example, the cases of Ethiopia and Eritrea. The most recent
conflict over borders between the two countries erupted into war during
23

1999 and 2000, a period when both countries faced severe food shortages
due to drought.
Environmental

degradation: Awareness

and

concern

about

environmental degradation have grown around the world over the last few
decades, and are currently shared by people of different nations, cultures,
religions, and social classes. However, the negative impacts of
environmental degradation are disproportionately felt by the poor.
Throughout the developing world, the poor often rely on natural resources
to meet their basic needs through agricultural production and gathering
resources essential for household maintenance, such as water, firewood,
and wild plants for consumption and medicine. Thus, the depletion and
contamination of water sources directly threaten the livelihoods of those
who depend on them.
Social Inequality: One of the more entrenched sources of poverty
throughout the world is social inequality that stems from cultural ideas
about the relative worth of different genders, races, ethnic groups, and
social classes. Ascribed inequality works by placing individuals in different
social categories at birth, often based on religious, ethnic, or 'racial'
characteristics. In South African history, apartheid laws defined a binary
caste system that assigned different rights (or lack thereof) and social
spaces to Whites and Blacks, using skin color to automatically determine
the opportunities available to individuals in each group.
Source: MSU Women and International Development

24

Chapter 6
Religious Causes
How Religion Contributes To Wealth And Poverty
Posted: 11/02/2011 2:07 pm EDT Updated: 01/02/2012 5:12 am EST

25

Wealth ownership is highly concentrated in the United States: the top 1

percent of households have consistently owned about 33 percent of net worth,
and wealth inequality has gotten even worse since the recession. High levels of
wealth provide great advantage, but even a small amount of savings can mitigate
the effect of financial shock. It is relatively enduring within and across
generations and can have significant educational, occupation, political and social
advantages. Wealth provides a buffer against financial emergencies and can
generate more wealth when it is reinvested.
Researchers are only beginning to understand the complex individual and
family processes that affect saving and wealth ownership, but religion has
emerged as an important part of the process. Religion embodies a great deal
about a person's general approach to the world--their conception about how the
world does and should work--and we are learning that it can shape financial
outcomes in surprising ways.
There are two broad reasons that religion and wealth are related. First,
religion affects wealth indirectly through its very strong effect on important
processes such as educational attainment, marriage, decisions to have kids, how
many kids people have and women's decisions to work or stay home with their
kids. Religion affects these behaviors and processes, and they, in turn, affect
household income, expenses and the amount of money left over to save.

26

Understanding these processes alone accounts for a large portion of the religionwealth association.
Second,

religion

can

also

affect

wealth

directly

by

influencing

intergenerational processes, social relations and orientations toward work and

money. Intergenerational processes (the transfer of both religious ideas and
wealth from parents to children) and social relations (contacts made through
religious group who can provide information, capital and other resources) are
certainly important.
One of the most fascinating explanations is the direct effect religion can
have on orientations toward work and money. Many of the important decisions
about family, work and saving have roots in their religious beliefs. For example, in
some conservative religious groups--including Conservative and Black Protestant
denominations--becoming a minister, working for a social service agency or
becoming a career missionary are considered good jobs. A calling into one of
these careers can be important for religious reasons, but these jobs don't
necessarily require high levels of education, don't typically pay well and won't
make it easy to save and accumulate wealth.
Some examples can help illustrate these processes. Results from
analyses of the National Longitudinal Survey, the Health and Retirement Study
and the Economic Values Survey suggest that Conservative Protestant and
Jewish families tend to be polar opposites on most measures of wealth. The
results also show that behaviors regarding family, education, work and saving
help explain why. Conservative Protestants often favor large families and a
traditional gender division of labor in which women do not work out of the home.
Conservative Protestants have also had, on average, lower levels of education
than other groups. Having a large family, low education levels for parents and a
single income-earner both make saving difficult and can lead to low wealth. Many
Conservative Protestants also view money as belonging to God. People are
considered managers of the money but should consult God or God's agents on
earth regarding decisions to use their money. Tithing as a percent of income
tends to be high in these faiths, and the desire to accumulate excess assets in
27

person bank accounts can be seen as undesirable. As this suggests,

Conservative Protestants have been at the low end of the wealth accumulation.
At the opposite end are Jewish families. Many Jewish mothers also stay
home with their children for at least the first years of the child's life. But Jewish
mothers are more likely to have high levels of education and a relatively small
number of children. This makes it easier for the Jewish mother to devote time
and other resources to early education. The Jewish mother is also more likely to
return to work after her children enter school, adding to income and making
saving and wealth accumulation more possible. Jewish families are also more
likely to take a pragmatic approach to money--that is, money is more likely to be
seen as a tool or a vehicle for taking care of family needs and other practical
concerns--and tend to accumulate relatively high amounts of wealth.
White Catholics are an important example because their position in the
wealth distribution has changed considerably in recent years. Less than a
generation ago, white Catholics were relatively disadvantaged: they had low
educations, low income, and low wealth. Important shifts in orientations toward
family and women's roles in the family were important contributors. White
Catholics now have much smaller families than in prior generations and Catholic
women are as likely as Mainline (or Liberal) Protestants to work out of the home.
Combined with a pragmatic, pro-saving orientation toward work, this has
propelled white Catholics up in the wealth distribution in recent years.
Mormons (LDS) are also interesting because they combine elements of
groups that are otherwise distinct. Mormons tend to be religiously conservative,
favoring large families and traditional gender roles. However, Mormons typically
have high educations and report more pragmatic orientations toward money and
accumulation. The result appears to be that Mormons have higher wealth than
other conservative Protestant groups, although these findings are a bit more
speculative than for other groups because Mormons make up a relatively small
proportion of the U.S. population.
Naturally, these relationships and processes are much more nuanced than
simple examples suggest; there are very important differences within each of the
28

groups I mention and a large number of other factors affect wealth accumulation
as well These examples also leave open questions about happiness: wealth
does not necessarily lead to greater satisfaction, and some argue that investing
in religion can have both intangible and tangible benefits. However, it has
become clear that the relationship between religion and wealth is very strong.
The recent recession underscored the need for savings at all levels of wealth,
and the importance of religion in American culture suggests that this may be an
important part of the explanation for growing inequality.

Natural Evil or Moral Evil

October 1, 2003 By Dr. Fazale Rana

29

Why does God allow

bad things to happen? How
can He if He is good and allpowerful? These questions
identify the problem of evil
that

for

many

represents

people
significant

challenge to Gods existence

and to personal faith.
Philosophers

and

theologians recognize two kinds of evil: moral and natural. 2 Moral evil stems from
human action (or inaction in some cases). Natural evil occurs as a consequence
of natureearthquakes, tornadoes, floods, diseases, and the like.
Natural evil seems to present a greater theological challenge than moral
evil does. A skeptic might admit that God can be excused for the free-will actions
of human beings who violate His standard of goodness. But natural disasters and
disease dont result from human activity, they reason. Therefore, this type of evil
must be attributed solely to God. Recent work, however, aimed at reducing
cholera in rural Bangladeshi villages suggests how precarious this reasoning can
be.3
Cholera, a disease characterized by diarrhea, extensive dehydration, and
rapid death if not immediately treated, is caused by ingestion of the bacterium,
Vibrio cholerae. This microbe naturally associates with a microscopic crustacean
(copepod) that floats as part of the surface water zooplankton in Bangladesh.
During the late spring and summer, phytoplankton blooms with rising water
temperatures. This, in turn, leads to blooms of zooplankton and toxic levels of V.
cholerae in rivers, lakes, and ponds.
Rural villages of Bangladesh rely heavily on surface water as a source of
drinking water. As a (sometimes deadly) result, cholera outbreaks routinely occur
in the fall after the zooplankton levels explode. 4 Bangladeshi villagers cannot turn
to wells for drinking water since over half are contaminated with arsenic. Boiling
30

surface water is rarely an option because wood fuel, used to sterilize the water, is
scarce and expensive. In light of this seemingly hopeless situation, skeptics and
Christians alike are justified to ask, Why would an all-powerful and good God
create a world in whichV. cholerae is inevitably a part?
In response to the cholera crisis, an international research team
developed

simple

filtration

procedure

to

remove

zooplankton

(and

accompanying V. cholerae) from surface water and deployed it in sixty-five rural

Bangladeshi villages. The research team instructed the villagers to use an
inexpensive cloth commonly found in households to filter drinking water.
Laboratory studies demonstrated that the folded cloth retained zooplankton and
removed about 99 percent of V. cholerae from the drinking water. In the field, the
cases of cholera plummeted by 50 percent over a two year span. Moreover, the
cholera cases reported were less severe, since the diseases impact depends on
the amount of V. cholerae ingested.
The suffering caused by choleraand other water-borne diseasesis
rooted in mans failure to act, not in Gods design. V. cholerae, a natural symbiont
of zooplankton, comes into contact with human beings largely due to poverty and
questionable resource and land management, not as an inevitable consequence
of the natural order. Even then, a simple filtration process offers protection from
this microbes devastating effects, allowing people to coexist with a natural realm
that God pronounces good.
References:
Ronald H. Nash, Faith and Reason: Searching for a Rational Faith (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988), 177221.
Nash, 178.
Rita R. Colwell et al., Reduction of Cholera in Bangladeshi Villages by
Simple Filtration,Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 100
(2003), 10511055.
The problem is not limited to Bangladesh. In 2001, 58 countries reported
184,311 cases with 2,728 deaths, but the World Health Organization estimates

31

that the officially reported cases represent around 510 percent of actual cases
worldwide.
From http://www.who.int/csr/disease/cholera/ihrnotification/en/; accessed
May 19, 2015 4:00 pm.

Chapter 7
Conclusion and Recommendations

32

Addressing the Underlying Causes of Poverty

Building a more widespread commitment to overcoming poverty is
an essential first step in overcoming poverty, and actions to address this
are discussed below.
Share the benefits of economic growth through an emphasis on
more widespread employment.
The phenomenon of jobless economic growth that increases income
inequalities and generates too few jobs for low income groups poses a
serious threat to the well-being of many nations, both North and South.
Government policies should consider not only aggregate economic impact
but also the distribution of employment. Socially responsible venture
capital and microcredit initiatives can foster employment-generating
businesses that complement the local culture and environment.
Rout

out

corruption,

which

harms

society

as

whole.

Corruption, both in government and business, places heavy cost on

society. Businesses should enact, publicize and follow codes of conduct
banning corruption on the part of their staff and directors. Citizens must
demand greater transparency on the part of both government and the
corporate sector and create reform movements where needed.
Broaden access to education and technology among marginalized
groups, and especially among girls and women. The educational
attainment of women has strong bearing on the well-being of their families,
and efforts to improve education for women and girls must be
strengthened. At the same time, steps should be taken to ensure that the
current revolution in information technology benefits marginalized groups.
This must begin in school.
Improve government capacity to provide universal access to
essential goods and services, including potable water, affordable food,
primary health care, education, housing and other social services.
33

Governments around the world have made commitments to this through

the 20/20 Initiative, which calls for 20% of national budgets and 20% of
foreign aid to be spent on human services. But raising adequate resources
through effective taxation and other mechanisms is often politically difficult.
New mechanisms for public policy dialogue that enable citizens of all
classes to recognize the benefit of universal access to key services must
be put in place. Nonprofit groups and even corporations can provide
essential support here, helping articulate a vision of a healthy society.
These nongovernmental actors can also help in the actual provision of
services.
Source: Synergos - University for a Night

Use poverty as inspiration to succeed,

says HS achievers under 4Ps
Aries Joseph Hegina
INQUIRER.net 5:24 PM | Thursday, April 23rd, 2015
34

POVERTY should not be an obstacle but an inspiration to succeed.

This was the message given by Maligaya High School Valedictorian
David Louie Manansala to fellow graduates who were beneficiaries of the
governments Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps).
In a speech delivered before more than 11,000 high-school
graduates at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Thursday, Manansala shared
how he treated poverty in a more positive lens.
Akala ng iba, napakalaki na ng pasakit na ating kinakaharap dahil
sa lugar na aking kinasasadlakan. Ngunit lingid sa kanilang kaalaman, ang
aking kalagayan ang lubos na nagpapatatag ng ating puso at
nagpapatibay ng ating pagkatao (Many people thought that we are
subjected under dire conditions because of the place we are in. Yet,
contrary to what others are thinking, being poor strengthens our will),
Manansala said.
Ang kahirapan ay hindi dapat maging hadlang, bagkus gawin natin
itong inspirasyon sa pag-abot ng ating mga pangarap (Poverty should
not be a hindrance but as an inspiration to reach our dreams), he added.
The high-school valedictorian, who has five siblings and supported
by his jeepney driver father and unemployed mother, said that every day
was a constant struggle for him and his family. He even sold gelatin and
maja blanca in school just to support his studies.

35

He told his fellow high-school graduates that they should strive to

break from the cycle of poverty.
Hindi kasalanan ang pagiging mahirap, magiging kasalanan lamang
ito kung mamamatay kang mahirap (To live in poverty is not a sin but to die
poor is a sin), he said.
Manansala said that through the Department of Social Welfare and
Developments (DSWD) Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps), he
and his other three siblings were able to pursue their studies.
Ang makapag-aral sa tulong ng 4Ps ay isang magandang
pagkakataon at hindi ko ito sasayangin (To study with the help of 4Ps is a
good opportunity that I will not take for granted), he promised.
Meanwhile, Alyanah Terite, the batch valedictorian of Pasay City
Science High School and a 4Ps beneficiary, thanked the government for
supporting her studies.
Malaking tulong ang sustento ng 4Ps dahil doon, mas napadali ang
pag-aaral ko at meron pong nagsu-support sa mga gastusin sa bahay (The
grants given through 4Ps was a big help for me as it made my schooling
bearable and it supported our household expenses), Terite said.
She said that she wants to give back to the government and the
Filipino people by studying hard and entering the government service
someday.
Huwag pong sumuko sa buhay kasi may mga tumutulong po sa
akin. Gusto ko pong ibalik yung utang na loob na yun sa kanila sa
pamamagitan ng pag-aaral nang mabuti para matupad ang pangarap ko
sa buhay. Para sa future, makatulong ako sa pamahalaan at sa kapwa ko
Pilipino, she said.
Both Manansala and Terite are headed to a brighter future as they
will enter the University of the Philippines come August. They will both take

36

up Civil Engineering but Manansala will study in UP Los Baos while Terite
is headed to UP Diliman.
According to the latest data from DSWD, 4,425,845 households in
41,517 barangays (villages) nationwide have benefited from 4Ps. AC
Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/687335/use-poverty-as-inspirationto-succeed-says-hs-achievers-under-4ps#ixzz3ZVSrtINc

37