THE current focus of Malacañ ang and Congress is the crafting of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) which has been denounced by detractors as a means of carving out a portion of the Philippines as a sub-state for the Bangsamoro or Moro nation. The BBL has, on the other hand, been presented by its sponsors as the only means to achieve lasting peace in Southern Philippines.
The rationale for Bangsamoro is that the non-Christian (mainly Muslim) and indigenous people of Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan have long been treated as second class citizens, deprived of their ancestral lands, neglected by the Central Government and left to languish in poverty. By being allocated a portion of the country as a self-governing entity entitled to the fruits of its natural and other economic resources, they will finally be able to achieve equity with the rest of the predominantly Christian Philippines.
The alternative, according to doomsayers, is a resumption of the never-ending conflict that will claim thousands more lives and may even result in secession by the Moro nation.
It is, indeed, a tantalizing rationale and, perhaps, deserves to be applied to another segment of the Philippine population similarly neglected and exploited.
The poor.
For purposes of this hypothesis, let us refer to them as the Bansang Mahihirap na Pilipino (BMP) or Poor Pilipino Nation, to give them similar status as Bangsamoro.
According to the latest data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the incidence of poverty in the country – not including Batanes and Yolanda-ravaged Leyte – was 25.8 percent as of 2014, from 24.9 in 2013. Assuming a current population of 100 million, we’re talking of nearly 26 million who make up the core of the BMP.
Add to this number those who are just managing to keep their heads above the poverty line but often get pulled under by sudden spikes in the price of food and other necessities, and the number of BMPs would swell.
In a recent Manila Times article by Johnny Gatbonton entitled, “Are our poor poor because it suits us to keep them that way?”, he wrote:
“ The survey group Pulse-Asia distinguishes five income groupings in national society. Classes ABC together equal 7 percent; D 67 percent, and E 25 percent. Class D breaks down further into two sub-categories. Below a true middle class of some 19 percent, there is a sub-category of the precariously ‘non-poor,’ making up 48 percent of national society, that subsists just above the poverty line, hostages to inflation and financial crisis, the loss of jobs, illnesses and deaths, and other life misfortunes.”
Add this 48 percent to the 25 percent Class E, whom research firms classify as ‘poor,’ and we have a staggering 73 percent or roughly 73 million Filipinos struggling to survive from day to day.
Against these bleak numbers, a piece by Daniel Wagner of Country Risk Solutions, which came out in Huffingtonpost, was referred to me by well-meaning friends to tell me, in effect, that I have been wrong in criticizing the performance of President Noynoy Aquino:
“President Aquino has demonstrated that it is possible…to transform the country from the sick man of Asia to one of its leading economies. In 2009, the year before Aquino assumed office, the country’s GDP growth rate was just above 1%. Since he assumed power in 2010, the country’s average GDP growth rate has been 6.3%. In 2009, the Philippines’ Gross National Income (in PPP dollars) was $627 billion; in 2013, it was $770 billion (a rise of 23%). And since 2009 the country’s total foreign exchange reserves (minus gold) have doubled, to more than $80 billion.
“There are a host of other economic indicators that have skyrocketed since Aquino took office, but the most important achievement has been the designation of investment grade status, and the confidence of the foreign investment community. World Bank President Kim said last year that the Philippines could become the next economic miracle of Asia.”
The annual Forbes list of billionaires, which includes more and more Filipinos, is proof that Wagner and my well-meaning friends are right.
In addition to these billionaires, there are the millionaires, taipans and corporate titans and executives who are also major beneficiaries of the booming economy. For purposes of this thesis, we shall refer to them, along with those belonging to the middle class, as Bayan ng Mayayaman at Masagana (BMM) or the Nation of Wealthy and Well-off.
The question is: How do we relate an economy that is so dynamic and rapidly growing, to a population nearly three-fourths of whom are impoverished? Does one fact necessarily belie the other? Not in the Philippines.
But to appreciate the seeming contradiction, we have to acknowledge the fact that the Philippines actually consists of two”nations” – not one. We have to face the harsh reality that a nation of poor Filipinos (the BMP) exists alongside a nation of wealthy and middle class people (the BMM).
Referring again to Gatbonton’s article, we can begin to appreciate the co-existence of these two Filipino nations:
“… one reason we in this country have tolerated so much poverty is that the middle and upper classes benefit greatly from the very low cost of labor, which enables those with money to have a high standard of living very cheaply. Thus it is not in their interest to remove poverty and low wages – at least not in the short to medium term. The downside is having to live in gated communities and employ armed guards to protect their lifestyle!’
Indeed, the BMMs flourish on the backs of the BMPs.
With such a humongous constituency, why shouldn’t the BMPs demand the same privileges as Bangsamoro? After all, they have been as neglected and as exploited. And yet these are the very same masses whose votes are courted by the politicians, most of whom belong to the BMM.
In other words, the BMPs have power. But, unlike the Moros who have had to resort to violence to wield their power, the BMPs are like cattle, passive, resigned to their fate. There are those among them who do a lot of barking, but their bark is worse than their bite. Most don’t bother to bark at all. It is enough for them to be able to survive.
We should all pray that the BMPs will not, one day, resort to the same kind of violent tactics that the MILF and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) used in order to get the attention of the national government.
Perhaps, a more enlightened national leadership will wake up – sooner, rather than later – to the potential threat posed by the poor and the marginalized and offer them, as they are offering the Moros, the prospects of a better life in their own country.
But it requires acknowledging that a “miracle economy’ that does not benefit the majority of the citizenry is a farce and that the fruits of ‘trickle down economics’ are often more theory than fact. It also takes compassion, a heartfelt appreciation of the plight of the poor.
Those of who make up the BMP do not demand too much. Free education, free or subsidized health care, food on the table, a chance to own their own home, livelihood and employment opportunities and other basic services.
Is that too much to ask for? Can it be done?
The experience of Makati – where two “nations,” the teeming BMP and the village-enclosed BMM, literally exist alongside each other – can serve as a template. Whatever the detractors of Vice-President Jojo Binay might say against him, he has demonstrated that it can be done.
This is certainly a better option than carving out a sub-state for the poor.
([email protected] )
