Gabriela says PNoy’s priorities misplaced
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QUEZON CITY — Myopic and a mere smokescreen is how Gabriela describes the planned P1,400 monthly subsidy to the poor by the government.
“By giving dole outs, they are painting the Aquino administration a popular picture that it is for the poor, but looking closely at its programs and even the 2011 national budget will tell us otherwise,” stated Lana Linaban, secretary general of Gabriela.
The militant women’s group slams Aquino’s misplaced priorities in budgeting for social services.
“Aquino touted that social services receive the highest allocation of 34.1%, but it will be largely spent on so-called “high-impact social services” as giving dole outs. These are meant to conceal the fact that there are no programs and policies in place that will address deeply-rooted problems on poverty, unemployment and landlessness,” Linaban lamented.
The group also notes that while there is wrong prioritization in the social services budget, the defense gets a solid increase of 81.15% and the foreign debt of 22.2%.
Gabriela stated that as history tells us, giving dole outs and merely addressing the problems of the people in a short-term manner do not result to strategic improvement in the lives of the people.
Gabriela cites as an example the reactive attitude of the government in dealing with dengue outbreak. “Information drive alone will not bring down the number of dengue cases. People need to fortify their physical health, strengthen their immune system in order to fight this illness. This can be only achieved with quality and healthy food that sadly, comes with a price tag that is inaccessible to the poor,” commented Linaban.
“As long as the government does not address the fundamental issue on economics, poverty will manifest itself in many forms and no short-term solution would bring in the change that Aquino promised the people,” Linaban further expressed.
Addressing the roots of poverty by providing gainful employment to the people remains the challenge of Gabriela to Aquino.
“We do not need myopic, short-term salve to our wounds. What we need are programs and policies that would empower us economically, that would make us capable to put food on our tables and fend for ourselves, not beg for alms in times of calamities,” Linaban concluded. # nordis.net
