Hungry
Hungry
Updated 05:16am (Mla time) Oct 07, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the October 7, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I FIRST heard it at a meeting with Sixto Roxas and several other economic experts. The crisis staring the country in the face, they said, was not really a fiscal or financial one, it was a social one. Specifically, it had to do with hunger. That was what the figures were showing, and that was more and more likely to happen over the next several months. It wasn't just that the banks would go kaput, it was that the people would go hungry.
Well, the papers have just confirmed what they've known all this time. The good news is that hunger reached its highest peak not during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's term but Joseph Estrada's, or shortly after Estrada's. That was in March 2001, a couple of months after Estrada was overthrown, when the incidence of hunger reached 16.1 percent. Though that happened in President Arroyo's time, we may safely conclude it was still the product of Estrada's mismanagement, a euphemism for the mess he made of this country.
The bad news is that the second highest incidence of hunger happened during President Arroyo's time. The even worse news is that it happened two months into her second term. Hunger rose spectacularly. It did so as prices soared, putting food and other necessities beyond reach of the poor. I did say in a previous column that I have first-hand knowledge of it, having to buy stuff from the stores near us for my needs. The cost of eggs and Ibuprofen -- yes, the latter is part of my needs -- has climbed over the past months. While I personally have not gone hungry, I am hard put to make any savings now.
It is not hard to see why prices have risen dramatically over the last couple of months. I wasn't alone to warn so. The kind of election spending President Arroyo unleashed to win a second term was bound to make it so. That was exactly what happened three decades ago when Ferdinand Marcos spent a fortune to get reelected. Three months after he won a second term, prices soared and the peso plunged. A development that spawned the violent rallies that came to be called the First Quarter Storm of 1970. Uncannily, President Arroyo's election last May is following that pattern more and more. Prices have gone up, and only a couple of weeks ago, the peso teetered over the edge and fell. To what abyss, we can only guess.
As it is, however, hunger, or even the specter of its becoming even more universal, is not the real crisis. The real crisis is that this hunger is happening alongside the Arroyo administration's profligacy. It is the sheer contrast between a people going hungry and government going blind that makes for a social volcano, one threatening forthcoming, if not imminent, eruption. Hunger is just the magma in the bowels of the volcano, government's indifference to it is the force roiling it. But this one doesn't resemble the start of Marcos' second presidential term at all, it resembles the twilight days of martial law, when a hungry people beheld Imelda Marcos throwing cakes at them.
You can't find clearer proof of President Arroyo's profligacy than that she borrowed more than Fidel Ramos and Estrada combined did in eight years, and has nothing to show for it. Except a people going hungry. And if that isn't proof enough, she supplies something more visible to the naked eye in retaining Winston Garcia, the government official who likes to buy paintings, in the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and appointing Ramon Revilla, the ex-movie star and ex-senator who contributed to society only when he became ex in both respects, to the Public Estates Authority.
Garcia I will always remember as the fellow who spoke before the showing of Fides Cuyugan and Ryan Cayabyab's opera on Juan Luna last year. He talked interminably, defending the GSIS' controversial purchase of Juan Luna's "Parisian Life" from Christie's, sparking a spasm of coughing from his audience. The coughing reached epidemic proportions, putting some even on the verge of throwing up, but the fellow never got the hint. No, he is not going to resign from the GSIS out of “delicadeza” [sense of propriety].
I did say during the campaign that President Arroyo was by no means the "lesser evil." And that turning a blind eye to cheating (the Commission on Elections existed for the purpose) and the wanton use of people's money to campaign (you saw nothing but huge billboards of President Arroyo grinning at the world from Aparri to Jolo) to stop the "greater evil" of Fernando Poe Jr. winning was bound to produce a truly monumental evil, the likes of which we have never known before. That is happening even as we speak: armed with an apparent mandate (apparent because most Filipinos, if the Ibon and SWS research groups are right, do not think Ms Arroyo won the election), Ms Arroyo now regards the presidency as an entitlement rather than an obligation.
The contrast between a people going hungry and a government going blind has produced a nasty consequence of late. That is the rash of crime. It is not merely the quantity of it, though that is startling enough in itself. It is the quality of it, or the boldness with which criminals are plying their trade. That is the other thing that reminds me of the twilight years of Marcos’ rule by martial law. That was how things were in 1984 and 1985, when bandits were robbing banks like the days of the old American West.
The murders of a Today newspaper business reporter and a Cebu network staff member testify to the growing mayhem. That is only partly explained by the criminals' newfound fondness for cell phones. It is explained also by the criminals' newfound sense of freedom. The boldness with which they are plying their trade you see in the way they are holding up eateries, particularly the open ones beside or on sidewalks. One of our favorite eating places, the Persian restaurant along Timog Avenue in Quezon City, was held up this way some weeks ago. Diners were relieved of their wallets and cell phones. Thankfully, no one died, though one was shot in the leg for resisting. Diners lost their appetites afterward.
That's another way of going hungry.
Updated 05:16am (Mla time) Oct 07, 2004
By Conrado de Quiros
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A12 of the October 7, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
I FIRST heard it at a meeting with Sixto Roxas and several other economic experts. The crisis staring the country in the face, they said, was not really a fiscal or financial one, it was a social one. Specifically, it had to do with hunger. That was what the figures were showing, and that was more and more likely to happen over the next several months. It wasn't just that the banks would go kaput, it was that the people would go hungry.
Well, the papers have just confirmed what they've known all this time. The good news is that hunger reached its highest peak not during Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's term but Joseph Estrada's, or shortly after Estrada's. That was in March 2001, a couple of months after Estrada was overthrown, when the incidence of hunger reached 16.1 percent. Though that happened in President Arroyo's time, we may safely conclude it was still the product of Estrada's mismanagement, a euphemism for the mess he made of this country.
The bad news is that the second highest incidence of hunger happened during President Arroyo's time. The even worse news is that it happened two months into her second term. Hunger rose spectacularly. It did so as prices soared, putting food and other necessities beyond reach of the poor. I did say in a previous column that I have first-hand knowledge of it, having to buy stuff from the stores near us for my needs. The cost of eggs and Ibuprofen -- yes, the latter is part of my needs -- has climbed over the past months. While I personally have not gone hungry, I am hard put to make any savings now.
It is not hard to see why prices have risen dramatically over the last couple of months. I wasn't alone to warn so. The kind of election spending President Arroyo unleashed to win a second term was bound to make it so. That was exactly what happened three decades ago when Ferdinand Marcos spent a fortune to get reelected. Three months after he won a second term, prices soared and the peso plunged. A development that spawned the violent rallies that came to be called the First Quarter Storm of 1970. Uncannily, President Arroyo's election last May is following that pattern more and more. Prices have gone up, and only a couple of weeks ago, the peso teetered over the edge and fell. To what abyss, we can only guess.
As it is, however, hunger, or even the specter of its becoming even more universal, is not the real crisis. The real crisis is that this hunger is happening alongside the Arroyo administration's profligacy. It is the sheer contrast between a people going hungry and government going blind that makes for a social volcano, one threatening forthcoming, if not imminent, eruption. Hunger is just the magma in the bowels of the volcano, government's indifference to it is the force roiling it. But this one doesn't resemble the start of Marcos' second presidential term at all, it resembles the twilight days of martial law, when a hungry people beheld Imelda Marcos throwing cakes at them.
You can't find clearer proof of President Arroyo's profligacy than that she borrowed more than Fidel Ramos and Estrada combined did in eight years, and has nothing to show for it. Except a people going hungry. And if that isn't proof enough, she supplies something more visible to the naked eye in retaining Winston Garcia, the government official who likes to buy paintings, in the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and appointing Ramon Revilla, the ex-movie star and ex-senator who contributed to society only when he became ex in both respects, to the Public Estates Authority.
Garcia I will always remember as the fellow who spoke before the showing of Fides Cuyugan and Ryan Cayabyab's opera on Juan Luna last year. He talked interminably, defending the GSIS' controversial purchase of Juan Luna's "Parisian Life" from Christie's, sparking a spasm of coughing from his audience. The coughing reached epidemic proportions, putting some even on the verge of throwing up, but the fellow never got the hint. No, he is not going to resign from the GSIS out of “delicadeza” [sense of propriety].
I did say during the campaign that President Arroyo was by no means the "lesser evil." And that turning a blind eye to cheating (the Commission on Elections existed for the purpose) and the wanton use of people's money to campaign (you saw nothing but huge billboards of President Arroyo grinning at the world from Aparri to Jolo) to stop the "greater evil" of Fernando Poe Jr. winning was bound to produce a truly monumental evil, the likes of which we have never known before. That is happening even as we speak: armed with an apparent mandate (apparent because most Filipinos, if the Ibon and SWS research groups are right, do not think Ms Arroyo won the election), Ms Arroyo now regards the presidency as an entitlement rather than an obligation.
The contrast between a people going hungry and a government going blind has produced a nasty consequence of late. That is the rash of crime. It is not merely the quantity of it, though that is startling enough in itself. It is the quality of it, or the boldness with which criminals are plying their trade. That is the other thing that reminds me of the twilight years of Marcos’ rule by martial law. That was how things were in 1984 and 1985, when bandits were robbing banks like the days of the old American West.
The murders of a Today newspaper business reporter and a Cebu network staff member testify to the growing mayhem. That is only partly explained by the criminals' newfound fondness for cell phones. It is explained also by the criminals' newfound sense of freedom. The boldness with which they are plying their trade you see in the way they are holding up eateries, particularly the open ones beside or on sidewalks. One of our favorite eating places, the Persian restaurant along Timog Avenue in Quezon City, was held up this way some weeks ago. Diners were relieved of their wallets and cell phones. Thankfully, no one died, though one was shot in the leg for resisting. Diners lost their appetites afterward.
That's another way of going hungry.
posted by Dante at 6:39 PM
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