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Rural Poverty
During the presidential and vice presidential debate in the 1992
elections, a person with
pseudonym Mang Pandoy was presented to the candidates for them
to dissect the ills of
poverty in the country. Mang Pandoy (real name: Felipe Natario)
was the perfect
representation of the Filipino poor. He was a peasant from the
province who barely finishedgrade three. Seeing a bleak future in
the province, Mang Pandoy relocated his family to metro
manila to seek for a better life. Living in the slums somewhere
in Quezon City, he earns Php
50.00 a day for his wife and eight children by selling
vegetables by the street side. He, however,
had gotten too sick preventing him to work and earn a living.
Mang Pandoy, in desperation,
joked that he would be willing to be shot in exchange for Php
100,000, just to be able to
provide for his familys needs.
The case of Mang Pandoy elicited various reactions from the
candidates and viewers as
well. Most of the comments blame the local government for not
providing economic
opportunity for mang pandoy in the province which could have
prevented him from going to
metro manila. Some comment that lack of education is the
culprit, while others points on
health and family planning services. One infamous rejoinder was
made by a vice presidential
candidate from Cebu saying that life would have been easier for
Mang Pandoy had he decided
not to leave the province. He stated further that if elected he
would initiate a program on
encouraging people in metro manila to return to their respective
provinces, vis--vis a program
on bringing development to the provinces to prevent the
recurrence of the case of Mang
Pandoy.
If we are to ponder, after 19 years the issues that befell us
then that resulted to many
mang pandoys are still the issues we have at present. The
poverty gap between urban and rural
areas is widening. Poverty incidence is the highest in CARAGA at
39.8% followed by ARMM at38.1% and Region IX at 36.6%. While
poverty incidence in metro manila and its peripheral
regions are at a manageable levels, 2.6% for NCR, 10.3% for
region IVA and 12% for region III.
NCR contribution to national GDP is 37% while region IV-A is 15%
and region III is 8%. All in all
metro manila and its neighboring regions provide 60% of our GDP
while the rest is contributed
by other rural regions. In the case of average family income and
expenditure, NCR again topped
all regions followed by Calabarzon and Central Luzon. Talking of
literacy, urbanized regions have
a literacy rate of 96.5% while rural regions have a literacy
level of 91.2%. (NSCB 2009)
We have known for a fact that polarized economic growth (metro
manila as the central
business district) would cause a negative impact on other
regions. This phenomenon wasstudied by several economists;
prominent of this was by Gunnar Myrdals study on Cumulative
Causation. Myrdals argued that when economic growth is
concentrated in one area, it will have
an adverse effect on the other areas. Wealth and labor will move
from poorer regions to the
central region and that the industrial production of wealthy
regions may well undercut the
industrial output of the poorer regions. This draining of wealth
and labor together with
industrial decline is the backwash effect or polarization
effect. Backwash effect as defined by
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financing (microfinance) support to agriculture. And lastly,
local government units must
encourage investors to invest in the province through providing
a conducive business
environment and through aggressive marketing focused on
provinces strengths and natural
endowments.
The think tanks of the past administration have probably a good
grasp on the situationthus coming up with a very ideal plan which
is the formation of the Super Regions which was
enacted under Executive Order 561. The super regions are the
Northern Luzon Agribusiness
Quadrangle, Luzon Urban Beltway, Central Philippines,
Agribusiness Mindanao, and Cyber
Corridor. The super regions serve as catalyst for development in
the area and ensure the
implementation of the priority programs at lowest cost to
government.
Clustering the regions according to its strengths was a
brilliant idea to limit the impact
of backwash effect as identified by Myrdal. The development of a
super region outside of
metro manila will result to the development of its peripheral
regions thus spreading the
economic development (spread effect- Myrdal).
Although the previous government has its shortcomings, it has
established programs
that are worth continuing such as the super regions. If the
current government has the sense of
continuing the conditional cash transfer program with pressures
from the World Bank, it must
also organize its senses and continue the super regions program
with pressures coming from
the rural poor, the real boss of the President.
