MEDIA RELEASE / 29 July 2014
IBON Foundation ∙ 114 Timog Avenue, Quezon City Philippines 1103
Phone: (632) 927-6986/927-7060 to 61 ∙ Fax: 929-2496 ∙ media@ibon.org ∙ http://www.ibon.org
Reference: Mr Sonny Africa (IBON executive director)
SONA EXAGGERATES GAINS TO DIVERT FROM REAL ECONOMIC WOES,
DECLINING CREDIBILITY
The president's State of the Nation Address (SONA)
appears to have been designed to arrest the administration's declining
credibility rather than present the real state of the country and how the
government can use its vast powers to improve the poor economic conditions of
the majority. According to research group IBON, the SONA merely repeated
so-called economic gains and evaded how any progress is felt merely by a few at
the expense of the many.
From a development perspective, Pres. Benigno Aquino’s
SONA affirms that the administration is not reformist when it comes to the
economy. The SONA affirmed its reliance on short-term measures to boost growth
for the illusion of economic progress – primarily public infrastructure
spending – and its avoidance of addressing the structural bottlenecks that
cause underdevelopment. There are mainly three inter-related bottlenecks: low
agricultural production and productivity, stunted domestic industry, and record
joblessness and wide poverty.
The president did not acknowledge the failure of agrarian
reform. Nine out of ten supposed beneficiary farmers still do not own the land
they till and three out of four are not even able to make the onerous payments
demanded by the government's landlord-biased agrarian reform programs. He even
just made excuses for his administration's poor performance in land
distribution which is well below the historical program average – at 19,700 hectares
per month compared to the 27,600 hectares per month historical average. Also, instead
of defining a vision for building Filipino industry he repeated the bankrupt
notion that foreign investors and being open for business to foreigners is the
path to domestic development.
The president exaggerated gains against joblessness and
poverty to divert from the exclusionary growth path of economic policies.
Incomplete data for employment and poverty were used to give the impression of
a turnaround in the conditions of the majority. However these used low
standards including glossing over the deterioration in the quality of work and
estimating inhumanly low poverty lines. Moreover, while Top 1000 corporate
profits have increased by at least 34% and the wealth of the richest 40
Filipinos grew by at least 137% since 2010, the mandated minimum wage and
average daily basic pay received by workers only increased by 2-3 percent.
Pres. Aquino also insisted on defending the undemocratic Disbursement
Acceleration Program (DAP). Yet this controversial scheme of presidential pork
barrel makes claims of budget reforms hollow with the false assertion that the
president can subvert institutional mechanisms because he has good intentions.
The president's SONA did not and could not refute how the administration
intentionally makes billions of pesos in the national budget available for
political and patronage purposes rather than rational economic uses. (end)
IBON Foundation, Inc. is an independent development
institution established in 1978 that provides research, education,
publications, information work and advocacy support on socioeconomic
issues.
Rhea Veda Padilla
IBON Foundation
114 Timog Avenue Quezon City, Philippines
Tel +632 9276986 | 9277060 to 62 loc 401
Fax +632 9292496
Email media@ibon.org
rpadilla@ibon.org
Mobile 0917 6140361
Rhea Veda Padilla
IBON Foundation
114 Timog Avenue Quezon City, Philippines
Tel +632 9276986 | 9277060 to 62 loc 401
Fax +632 9292496
Email media@ibon.org
rpadilla@ibon.org
Mobile 0917 6140361
Rhea Veda Padilla
IBON Foundation
114 Timog Avenue Quezon City, Philippines
Tel +632 9276986 | 9277060 to 62 loc 401
Fax +632 9292496
Email media@ibon.org rpadilla@ibon.orgMobile 0917 6140361
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