On the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime's "reforms": The crisis' severe blow on the people
Intensified poverty. The continued intensification of the country's economic crisis has wrought increasing suffering on the people, especially the toiling masses. According to a statement from the government's National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB), poverty incidence in the country rose from 36.8% in 1997 to 40% in 2000. The NSCB considers a family of six poor if it earns less than P12,000 (or P461.54 for every working day) per month. Poverty incidence would even be worse based on the standards of the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), an agency under DOLE. According to the NWPC, a family of six would need P15,270 (or P587.31 for every working day) to meet its basic needs. In a survey conducted in March by the Social Weather Station, a private research agency, 15%-the highest in the country's history-are hungry and 59% consider themselves poor. Worsening poverty in the country is tightly linked to the growing number of unemployed, along with low wages of workers.
Worsening unemployment and deterioration of livelihood. According to official government statistics, more than 4.1 million or 13.3% of the labor force were already without jobs in the second quarter of 2001. The figure represents a big leap from an average of 9.8% in 1999, 11.1% in 2000 and 11.4% in the first quarter of 2001. About 5.4 million or 17.5% are underemployed. Even among those with jobs, 2.7% are unable to work and 38.7% work for less than 40 hours per week.
Not included in the official count of the unemployed and the underemployed are some 4.3 million unpaid family workers. The figure has also taken a big leap from 3.3 million in 1999 and 3.4 million in the first quarter. Among the 11.5 million "own-account workers", mostly in the agricultural and service sectors, a very large number has unstable sources of income, such as jeepney dispatchers, sidewalk vendors, scavengers and others within the so-called informal sector. Some 15.1 million housewives, students, retirees and handicapped who are all without work, are not even included in the labor force.
Instead of growing, the number of those employed has been dwindling. In 1999, their numbers shrunk by 458,000 compared to the 1998 figure, and last year, their numbers decreased by another 223,000. The figure continues to decline under the current regime. From January to May 2001, up to 218 companies closed shop and 817 laid off workers. As a result, more than 26,000 workers have lost their jobs. A hundred thousands are set to be laid off from their jobs as lower-ranking government employees due to the advancement of the program on the privatization of state-owned corporations.
In addition, more than a million farmers annually are driven by extreme poverty, lack of land to till and the dearth of employment in the countryside, to pour into the cities to seek jobs, swelling the ranks of tens of millions of urban poor. Some 1.3 million were driven by rural poverty in 1998-99 and 1.5 million in 1999-2000 and their number continues to grow. There are also 800,000 to 1,000,000 youth added to the labot force yearly. They, too, seek employment.
Time bomb of migrant workers. The only thing that has absorbed massive and growing unemployment is the massive export of labor. The remittances of migrant workers amounting to $7 billion yearly are among the factors propping up the country's economy and finances. They comprise almost 40% of the country's GNP. Due to worsening unemployment, more and more Filipinos are migrating. Some 2,300 persons leave the country daily to look for work. It is estimated that in a year, another million are added to the more than seven million migrant workers already overseas. But employment opportunities are likely to be depleted. Since 1999, there have been mass layoffs of foreign workers in Asian countries. The Saudi government continues to implement "Saudization" and plans to repatriate the 800,000 Filipinos working there. At present, some 60,000 Filipino workers employed in jewelry factories have been sent home. The rising number of migrant workers is a growing time bomb that will set off the huge employment and overall economic crisis once the majority are forced to come back.
Extremely low wages. Those employed receive slave wages. The P250 minimum daily wage is not even half of the P587.31 needed daily by a worker with a family of six to live decently. Nonetheless, many more factories and enterprises still do not implement the minimum wage. The workers' movement and its supporters are asserting the need for a P125 increase in the workers' daily wage. But the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime has not done anything towards this end and has instead been trying to deceive the workers by offering them crumbs.
Rising prices and expenses. Rising prices of commodities have long oustripped workers' low wages. The inflation rate has been rising since 1999. It stood at 6.7% in July, from 6.5% in May and 4.3% at the end of 2000. Registering the highest price increases are basic needs such as food and beverages, housing and other services. Continued oil price hikes have yanked up prices of these commodities, along with dwindling peso values vis a vis the dollar and high interest rates. The only thing barring prices from further rising is the big decrease in consumer demand, due to lack of money with which to purchase goods. A peso in 1994 could only purchase P0.62 worth of goods today.
Even basic social services have become more costly for the people, especially for the basic masses. With the implementation of the Power Reform Act, basic electricity charges would supposedly decrease by 30 centavos, only to be recouped through an additional universal charge for electricity. Prior to this, Malaca�ang had also given its go-signal to Maynilad to raise charges for water services. There is a pending proposal to raise SSS contributions deducted from workers' and employees' pay from 8.4% to 21%. This is supposedly to enable SSS to recover its losses the previous year, due to anomalies in handling the fund, committed by its leaders and the ousted regime.
The broad masses of the people can only expect greater suffering under the continued existence of the decadent semicolonial and semifeudal system, especially as a result of the US-Macapagal-Arroyo regime's assiduous advance and implementation of "globalization" and other imperialist policies. We must expose and resist the regime's posturing and its aggravation of the people's urgent, basic problems.
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