Poverty

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Technically, our country is known to be one of the highest levels of education in Asia, especially when considering the level of development4 when it comes to literacy rate, for aged 15 and above, we have an average of 96.3%5. Probably Philippines is the most typical case of what is called the “education puzzle”. Meaning education by itself does not guarantee successful development 6. Therefore, the level of poverty of the Philippines is difficult to be explained by the level of education of their workers.

Another thing is the miseducation, we are taught to go to school, get high grades and that’s it, which is apparently not true. There are some cases wherein those who are undergraduate yet they are earning more. So there’s something wrong.

In case of health services, though we have the PhilHealth, and there is the initiative of DOH to implement the Nurse Deployment Program which is in order to help address the lack of health workers in rural areas especially those that are geographically isolated and disadvantaged area like CAR and MIMAROPA 7, it wasn’t enough to cover the medical needs of the people in remote areas. How about their need for access to medical services and free medicine where in fact not all health centers are located only in poblacions or center town.

Also, our lack of discipline adds to main causes of poverty, without it we cannot attain something that is significant. A lot of people nowadays, like the so-called millennials, they want things the easy way and are very complaining.

Truly there are many factors that cause poverty from employment issues, high population growth, difficult access to primary facilities, but the main factor that affects our country’s economy and the livelihood of Filipinos is the governance issues such as corruption which is very rampant in the Philippines and security issues which are prevalent in Mindanao and other poor areas. Thus, entrepreneurs will not be interested in investing money in a place where there is violence, which results to low employment opportunities and a bad economy.

SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM

Last June 30,2016, President Duterte signed his First Executive Order which is the Reengineering the Office of the President Towards Greater Responsiveness to the Attainment of Development Goals” – puts 12 agencies under Evasco.

These agencies are:

- Cooperative Development Authority

- Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council

- National Anti-Poverty Commission

- National Commission on Indigenous Peoples

- National Commission on Muslim Filipinos

- National Food Authority

- National Youth Commission

- Office of the President-Presidential Action Center

- Philippine Commission on Women

- Philippine Coconut Authority

- Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor

- Technical Education and Skills Development Authority

According to the EO, Evasco is given the task of supervising the 12 agencies as they “evaluate existing poverty reduction programs and, if deemed necessary, formulate a more responsive set of programs complementing existing ones, channeling resources as necessary to reduce both the incidence and magnitude of poverty.”

There are already programs intended for poverty reduction like 4Ps, KALAHI, microfinance, free TESDA courses and livelihood programs, PhilHealth, ALS, and etc. What we need right now is how can we specifically promote proper services to the those who needs it most.

We suggest to have counterpart offices or agencies in the local areas aside from the barangays and municipalities, thus the need will be properly monitored and addressed. From medical services, education, training and livelihood and more importantly, values formation. Not only we should invest in people but also to the facitilies that will be used in order to attain our goals.

For Herbosa, the solution lies in the hands of the LGUs, since under the Local Government Code, primary and secondary care is their responsibility. “Barangay health stations and rural health units are handled by the mayors, and district and provincial hospitals and others are handled by governors, only regional hospitals and large-scale hospitals are under us.”

Lastly, what greatly affects the drive and motivation of the citizen to develop is that they must instill first the values. The way how they should perceive life and not rely on the help of the government alone. Their coordination is just a guide to initiatively lead us to the way of life.

There is a need to educate the population to enable each individual contribute productively to economy's growth which in turn will improve people's lives. Education is the answer to the eradication of poverty, crimes and poor health problems. If all people are educated with stable jobs here or abroad, it would be very much benefited for the families. Due to corruption, the people sacrificed to build a strong future for the country. Just like in a war, soldiers sacrifice their lives to fight for the independence of the country. There is a war on poverty and some groups have to give in. Many Filipinos, especially poor people and their children sacrifice a lot to fight for independence against poverty.

Strategies to create more productive employment opportunities in the Philippines must satisfy at least the two following conditions: I) generate enough jobs not only to absorb new entrants into the labor market every year, but also to reduce over time the large pool of unemployed workers and ease underemployment; and II) generate jobs in the less developed parts of the country.

Strategies to create more and better employment opportunities in the Philippines must address deep-seated, structural issues in the economy. In its endeavors to resolve them, the government will need to implement a holistic reform agenda that can foster a business environment conducive to private-sector growth accompanied by job creation.

Measures should include: i) simplifying business rules and regulations to encourage private sector growth, with a special emphasis on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and ii) enhancing competition and giving priority to sectors with the greatest potential for creating jobs.

LEGAL