Dragon Dance in Mendiola
Activists urge Palace to translate 6.6% growth to “household prosperity”

Sanlakas slams Aquino’s “exclusive growth”, calls on NEDA Chief to set “equality targets”

Celebrating the Chinese New Year with a militant twist, activist group Sanlakas does a dragon dance in Mendiola, urging Palace to start the year of the Snake right and translate 2012’s 6.6% growth to “household-level prosperity.”

“The 2012 year of the Dragon has given the government a 6.6% growth but ‘unlucky policies’ prevented these from being felt by the poor,” Sanlakas National Spokesperson James Miraflor said.

Miraflor then unveiled an 8-item package of “emergency economic reforms” that will “pave the way for growth to be distributed equitably, a key step towards ‘hayahay na bukas’ (prosperous future) for Filipinos this year of the Snake.”:

1. End Department of Labor and Employment’s (DOLE) Two-tiered Wage Policy implemented last year in Southern Luzon.
2. Stop Department of Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) planned demolition wave in Metro Manila danger zones after 2013 elections, as well as “pocket demolitions” in Quezon City.
3. Revamp Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) leadership to fast track land distribution before 2014 deadline.
4. Ensure that Department of Agriculture (DA) achieves food self-sufficiency targets in 2013.
5. Release Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) industrial roadmap drafted last year; open the process to citizen’s participation.
6. Push the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to allocate 6% of GNP to education in 2014 budget.
7. Ensure Coco farmer’s management of Coco Levy funds.
8. Ensure just reparations from the United States government on Tubattaha Reef damage to ecology and the local fishing industry.

“Exclusive Growth”

“Policies such as the two-tiered wage policy and demolition plan show that the 6.6% growth is ‘exclusive growth’ – growth that is biased to capital owners. This explains why despite branding the Philippines a new ‘breakout nation’, extreme income poverty continues to exist,” Miraflor said.

Miraflor also complained that inequality in the Philippines is worse than our Southeast Asian neighbors, with our Gini coefficient pegged at 0.448 compared to Thailand’s 0.425, Indonesia’s 0.394, Malaysia’s 0.379, and Vietnam’s 0.378, quoting investment adviser Peter Wallace.

Gini coefficient, which is a number between 0 and 1, is a measure of inequality based on the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES). A value closer to zero indicates a more equal society.

“The Dragon Year of 2012, while a lucky year for business, is another unlucky one for urban and farm workers, with SWS survey pointing to an 1.4 million increase in self-rated poverty amid the jobless rate increasing from 6.4% to 6.8% in 2012,” Miraflor said.

Equality Targets

Miraflor asked the Economic Planning Chief Arsenio Baliscan to set “equality targets” on top of annual growth targets, saying that this will ensure that the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) will be on-track on its inclusive growth goals.

“NEDA should place its money where its mouth is. We suggest that it sets a clear target on reducing the Gini coefficient, and give us a time frame,” Miraflor said.

Miraflor said that unlike growth targets which is primarily determined by private sector activity, “equality targets” are more normative and government-driven.

“It seems that Filipinos had been short-changed in 2012. This should not be the case for 2013. Our reform package, plus equality targets for NEDA, is a good step to prevent a repeat of ‘exclusive growth’,” Miraflor said.

False Prophet of Boom

Sanlakas also minced no words against the World Bank, which has recently touted the Philippines as a “Rising Tiger.”

“Since 1957, the World Bank has been touting the Philippines as an economy on the verge of takeoff. It touted the Philippines as such when it pushed the Marcos dictatorship to structural adjustments in the 1970s, and when it supported the neoliberal policies of the Ramos administration in the 1990s,” Miraflor said.

Miraflor said that structural adjustments and neoliberal reforms caused the Philippines to lag behind its Asian neighbors like Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea, which has industrialized through “state-driven development programs that strongly regulated and directed the market.”

“World Bank has always been a false prophet of ‘boom’, despite contributing to the Philippines economic demise,” Miraflor concluded.

February 10, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
Contact Person:
James Miraflor, National Spokesperson @ 0927-613-2068
Val De Guzman, Media Liason @ 0919-965-7509

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