Labor group says
fewer families got hungry due to proliferation of popular ‘pagpag’
food
By
TUCP-Nagkaisa
May 12, 2015
QUEZON CITY – Fewer
Filipino families experienced involuntary hunger in the last quarter,
as shown by the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey, because
‘pagpag’ food is now readily and widely accessible to many Filipino
poor especially in Metro Manila, said the labor group Trade Union
Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa).
“We would like to attribute
this development to the proliferation of ‘pagpag’ food – very cheap,
very delicious and easily accessible to the poor,” said TUCP-Nagkaisa
spokesperson Alan Tanjusay.
However, the TUCP-Nagkaisa
believes the Aquino administration failed to make quality living for
the majority of Filipinos by not meeting three benchmarks:
1. Failure to bring up the
income of the poor with 97% surviving on P162 a day subsistence wages
and do not have the ability to pay for goods and services; Token wage
increase and redefining the poverty to by changing the basket of goods
that would warrant survival replacing chicken and meat with dried fish
and vegetables is indecent;
2. Failing to make for
power, water, telecom services affordable. Profits of the top 3% who
are the owners of these sectors represent almost 80% of the national
wealth. Meralco has gross earnings of P25 billion and net earnings of
P18 billion. Little wonder that they can pay their top 8 officers
additional bonuses ranging from P800,000 to P1 million.
3. Appropriate government
expenditures with government savings are enormous. The fiscal savings
for 2014 alone amounts to P300 billion. If used to put up
infrastructure easily 20% to 30% would have been dedicated to new
jobs. The new infrastructure as in power, ports likewise would have
encouraged entry of more jobs.