Poverty. A long time problem of our society, hard to believe but we have been undergoing this kind of economic state for the past decades. Many Filipinos belongs to the lower class or poor families. But what are the reasons for this poverty we are experiencing is it really graft and corruption? Or is there an underlying truth behind this burden Juan Dela Cruz is facing?
The most popular and most-in-demand reason for poverty is Graft and Corruption. It is due to corrupt government officials and their allies. The majority, if not all, and they enrich themselves at the expense of the Filipino taxpayers. In the last 10 years, we witnessed how our leaders actively promoted cheating and stealing. Without corruption in the AFP, peace and order could have been in place a long time ago. Without the fertilizer scam, our farmers could have had a better yield. Without corruption, the state could have provided better education to the youth, who could have been a factor in nation-building. Without corruption in the LTO and traffic enforcers, public transport drivers could have been disciplined and earning more. Without corruption, the state could have put up more industries that produce more necessary products and generate more employment and could have checked poverty. These greedy politicians didn’t realize that the more they steal money the more Filipinos die because of starvation and diseases.
Indolence, ignorance, lack of education and inhibition hard to believe but this also caused poverty. Overpopulation, lack of job opportunities and the proliferation of Juan Tamad’s in our midst that rely only on dole outs because our culture believes that the government is responsible for our care. This belief also led to poverty. We depend too much in our government may it be on food, livelihood or even education. Unfortunately saying Juan Dela Cruz really lack of inhibition we are indolent in nature. Lack of education and damaged moral values, many Filipino’s was not given the opportunity of studying that’s why they are not trained to think for possible making-a-living stuff. Education is one the most important factors in any aspect of economic progress. It plays a key role in developing any country, and if it's not nurtured well enough, society will just continue their path to regression. In an eager climb to get out of their situation, rural families often move to cities in search of a new life. Since most of them are empty-handed, they often settle and live on land they don't own. And the debilitating mindset of every Filipino, be they affluent or lacking, it is thinking and believing that nothing else can be done for one to prosper and have a good life. It is thinking only of the self and believing only for the self when one has too much of anything and not sharing the ‘extras’ to those who are lacking. It is what we all nurture in our “mind”. What we think, we act, we feel and the rest is a resultant of it.
Economics. Poverty can also be a result of mismanaged economics. With resources running very low, it is important to balance and utilize whatever is left to efficiently produce goods and services to satisfy growing demands. Everything in our life, especially our basic needs, that we have to satisfy everyday, including the ills of society, are economic in nature. Too expensive commodities that corrupt and unconsciously steal our income, if the middle class families almost not even balance their monthly expenses how come the lower-class families? Social and culture issues, mentalities such as crab mentality, materialism and consumerism affect the way people progress in society. Dr. Jose Rizal pointed out the necessity of education for Filipinos before we could be granted independence. Without education, Filipinos fail to realize that indolence and love of pleasure and extravagance were bringing them into the quagmire of poverty and hunger. Though education in the Philippines improved at the outset of American rule, their Western education brought about colonial mentality and tightly chained them into the bondage of foreign imperialism. We have failed to utilize to the max the best of Filipino talents and industries, supported by our rich natural resources. Look around our neighboring Asian nations. They depend on their own rather than foreign aid and culture.
Poverty Cycle this is a cycle where there is a certain process in which poor families remain poor in our society. It is like in a rat cage of poverty that someone or a bomb needs to break this thing so we can be free. Natural Disasters, any country in the world will be poor if they experienced nonstop floods and typhoons. This will eventually wash out all the resources a country have. Natural disasters are in inevitable.
And last but not the least the 1909 PAYNE-ALDRICH ACT, which is the free trade of the Philippines with the United States, the latter told RP that this will be beneficial to the Philippines but unfortunately this is not beneficial for us. For this is not a free trade anymore but globalization. For the U.S will buy our raw products such as sugar, tobacco, cotton etc., and they will manufacture this into finished products such as clothes, gadgets, etc., and then they will sell this manufactured products to us. We sell them the raw products for a low price but we will buy the manufactured products for a very high price. Not a smart way to have a business transaction isn’t it? Well this is the scientific explanation of the poverty in the Philippines.
According to Edwin Chinel Monares of Rizal, “while poverty is a result of many factors, the value system of the Filipinos remains to be its major cause. I cannot understand why people would die in hunger when there are a lot of vacant spaces where they can plant. Here, the economically struggling family would have more children than the economically blessed. In slum areas, a lot of parents and children are hooked on vices such as gambling instead of looking for a decent job that can provide them means of sustenance. As the saying goes, life is what you make it; thus, to wallow in poverty is a choice”. So that’s it poverty or being a poor is a choice it’s either you remain poor or push yourself to move your limbs and the muscles under your skull so you can get out of the rat cage in our society.
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