Two and One

I use “Two and One” as the title of this article today in order to catch your sense of inquisitiveness. Your reading this write up indicates that somehow I have succeeded in my design. Two and One in this column is not the mathematical three. It does not refer to a movie whose plot is on two men in so an unusual relationship that they decided to bring in one more.

True to the off tangent nature of this column, the title should refer to two seemingly unrelated news reports that are, to me, disturbing. The first is the news that the government’s Anti-Poverty Program popularly called as the 4ps still keeps in its roster of beneficiaries some four million people. The second report is actually a result of a survey. It says that about fourteen million Filipinos consider themselves as poor. The one is on the administration of President Ferdinand R Marcos Jr. of only ten months but already obtaining an indebtedness of over one trillion pesos.

The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) is designed as a human development measure of the national government that provides conditional cash grants to the “poorest of the poor.” The objective of the program is to improve the health, nutrition and the education of children aged 0-18. This program reportedly received a total funding of over Seven Hundred Eighty billion pesos between 2008 and 2021. The report noted that there are a total of 4.2 million active 4Ps beneficiaries who have been on the program for seven to thirteen years.

The news appears to be based on cold facts. Only numbers are shown. Charts, curves and graphs that normally accompany financial reports are missing. There are no interpretations made on the numbers. Nothing can tell is if the program is achieving its goals. Pantawid is a Tagalog word to mean to walk thru. The cash assistance program is supposed to help the poor among the poorest walk thru their poverty and achieve a better financial position in life. But, somehow, the report itself shows that program is a failure. How come 90 percent of beneficiaries or a total of 3,820,012 households, are still living below the poverty threshold?

The second news report mentioned that around 14 million Filipino families considered themselves poor in the first quarter of 2023. The Social Weather Stations (SWS) which conducted the survey said this was a “steady” figure from its record in December 2022. If the 4P’s was aimed at the poorest of the poor, the four million household/beneficiaries who have remained poor must be a part of the 14 million Filipinos surveyed by SWS. There is no clearer indicia that the almost 800 billion pesos spent for the 4P’s program has just been wasted.

Two down. One to go. Before Gloria Macapal Arroyo assumed office in January 2001, the government’s outstanding actual debt stood at P2.167 trillion. At the end of her term in June 2010, it went up to P4.582 trillion. Thus, the net addition to the debt after Arroyo’s 9-year term was P2.416 trillion (rounded off).

When President Benigno Simeon Aquino III stepped down from office in June 2016, the outstanding actual debt increased to P5.948 trillion. Differently said, Aquino added P1.366 trillion to the national debt in his 6-year term.

President Rodrigo Duterte ended his presidency in June 2022 with ?12.79 trillion in outstanding national government debt. Figure wise, Duterte incurred a total Philippine indebtedness of P6 trillion (rounded off)

 The one (last) report I have read shows that the administration of Pres. Marcos Jr. is on the road to topping all debt levels incurred by previous regimes. Within his first ten months, the new national debt breached the one trillion pesos mark. I cannot help but say OMG.