GO bets: Arroyo's P1B for hunger, a 'band-aid' solution

At least three opposition senatorial candidates criticized President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's move to allot P 1 billion for the government's hunger mitigation measures, saying this was just a "band-aid solution" to the lingering problem of poverty. Genuine Opposition senatorial candidates Loren Legarda and Panfilo "Ping" Lacson said the move of Malacañang following surveys done by the Social Weather Stations was a "knee-jerk" reaction to on old, recurring problem. SWS survey showed that hunger remained at a record high of 19 percent. Another of its survey said that 53 percent of Filipino families rated themselves as poor. Radio dzBB on Sunday quoted Legarda as saying that the Palace should not have waited for the results of the survey before it acted on the problem. She said a more lasting solution to hunger is for the government to truly promote the interest of farmers and food producers. Meanwhile, dzBB quoted Lacson as saying that the P1 billion fund should be well-guarded from corruption. He also defended the Senate's decision, which removed the fund for school feeding programs from last year's national budget. The program would have given each student one kilo of rice. Lacson said the program should have ensured that students were well-fed inside the schools. He said another program should have been made for poor families who should have benefitted from rice distribution. Meanwhile, senatorial candidate Francis Escudero warned that the "dole-out" of P1 billion by the administration to provide food for the poor might even "worsen poverty in the future because money that could have been used for self-sustaining projects are poured down the drain, including the black hole of corruption." Escudero said the administration "(has) no program for the modernization of the Philippine economy, such as promoting industrialization in order to provide jobs and produce commodities for local consumption." But Team Unity senatorial candidate Ralph Recto defended Mrs Arroyo's hunger mitigation project. DzBB quoted Recto as saying that the measure was not a band-aid solution and that what people really needed was to pay their taxes correctly and be responsible citizens. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of the Philippines said that by “raiding" government coffers for “hunger mitigating measures," the government will likely only worsen the problem of hunger. CPP spokesman Gregorio “Ka Roger" Rosal also questioned President Arroyo’s “full turnaround" in ordering the release of P1 billion, including P500 million for food-for-work and food-for-school programs, less than a week after trying to downplay it. “After Arroyo’s patent denials about the existence of worsened hunger in the country, she now fakes an admission of the dire phenomenon, only to come up with measures designed to raid state coffers and worsen the people’s hunger," Rosal said in a statement on the CPP website (www.philippinerevolution.net). He noted Arroyo first tried to shake off the problem with “utterly insensitive remarks" to spite survey results showing that hunger has reached record highs under her regime. Rosal branded as “callous" Arroyo’s admonition to the people to spend less on luxuries so they could have more food, and her statement that she herself has missed a few meals in the past three months. “But after slyly figuring that she could make use of the issue to steal even more from the poor, Arroyo has ordered the release of P500 million, ostensibly to carry out ‘hunger mitigating’ measures," he said. He said the supposed food for school, work and parish programs are all “gimmicks" to be used by her allies as election campaign funds. This is aside from the allocation of P1 billion in “disaster funds" for her son Diosdado’s adopted turf to fund and boost his electoral campaign, he said. “She (Arroyo) has allowed the doubling of congressional ‘pork barrel’ as an insurance policy against another try to impeach her," he said. “All this makes this regime one of the most thieving and plunderous of all the post-war puppet governments. Arroyo’s kleptocracy has made the people poorer and all the more hungry," he added. Rosal said the Filipino people will not be to blame if they want the Arroyo regime to end in “the same way that the hungry and irate people of 18th century France finished off the hated parasitic and brutal monarchy led by Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette."