Helping ‘little’ people to hope big
ANY news about anyone helping "little" or poor people in a big way is good news. About the best piece of news this week – after a series of unhappy events in Basilan and Sulu, and the sudden, controversial and mostly inexplicable reshuffling of high officials in the DENR, DOE, CHED, NEDA and the National Telecommunications Commission plus the relocation of DAR and Philippine Army Headquarters to Mindanao – was PGMA’s order to the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) last 11 August to stop the lotto price increase from R10 to R20. The Philippine Star in a report by Paolo Romero (11 August) quoted Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Director General (Secretary) Cerge Remonde that "PGMA instructed him to relay her order to PCSO General Manager Rosario Uriarte. The PCSO earlier announced the increase will take effect on 15 August." The same Star story went further: "Government believes stopping the increase in lotto ticket prices would prevent many players, especially in the provinces, from engaging in jueteng, an illegal numbers game now in decline.... Many lotto players are poor people hoping to be multi-millionaires."Hope for the poor
A related article of the Philippine Daily Inquirer by Jeannette Andrade and Juliet Labog-Javellana (11 August) stated: "Remonde said the President stopped the planned increase because of public sentiment. He added that increasing the price could also drive the public to patronize illegal numbers games. The Inquirer interviewed loyal patrons of lotto who claimed the doubled price would make it doubly difficult for them to hit the jackpot. Houseboy Eric Estabaya of Cubao, Quezon City buys lotto tickets on a daily basis. When he learned that the price would double effective 15 August, he said he would just bet once a week. ‘R20 is expensive for me and, I expect, also for other bettors…’ Eric earns a salary of R4,000 monthly and has two children while his wife is unemployed."
According to Star’s Mayen Jaymalin (15 August): "Many Filipinos and other workers in Asia are still living poorly, trying to make both ends meet with R90 a day, the International Labor Organization (ILO) said… In its report "Visions for Asia’s Decent Work Decade: Sustainable Growth and Jobs to 2015," the ILO affirmed that efforts of various governments in Asia seem not enough to improve the quality of jobs. The report noted that over one billion or 61.9 percent of the workforce in Asia, including the Philippines, are still in the informal economy, with little or no social protection."
Testing and capturing the market
It would have been simpler for the PCSO first to "test the market" by commissioning an outfit like the Social Weather Stations (SWS) or any other reliable polling group to determine from a random sample of the A, B, C, D, and E classes their reaction to a price increase before its implementation. Worldwide, lotto is classified as "amusement" and not "gambling." It is such a universally accepted pastime that even the Vatican had not made any pronouncement against it. The Church itself openly avails of lotto, bingo and sweepstakes – which operate within the PCSO charter – to raise funds for charity. Lotto is attractive to common people precisely because of its cheap price (less than a kilo of rice or a few cigarettes) enabling them to risk a modest stake regularly. Herein lies their hope to lift their lives. Like all other massbased numbers games, hope is what keeps the PCSO going and it is hope, no matter how seemingly remote or unreachable, that captures the market.
Thus, it has to be priced within the regular reach of the masses because the odds against winning are so great that only a few really win with each draw while the vast majority loses. But because the loss is affordable to ordinary people, they keep coming back for another try. The computerized/automated PCSO lottery is so designed that, since 1995, it has been able to raise ample funds for charity and social programs. Lotto is a cheap game of chance, and is actually a form of voluntary taxation that should not be seen as an expense. Through lotto, the PCSO is selling hope to "little" people in a big way – and has been doing a good job of it over the years.
Economic bad news
Directly related to the good news is the bad news from the economic sector. The more obvious, day-to-day signs of negative developments are the long lines of people in the DFA passport offices, recruitment agencies for both local and foreign job vacancies, and various TV game shows for small cash prizes.
"More Filipinos Hopeful of Their Lot in 12 Months" banners BusinessWorld (13 August) as reported by Josefa Therese Cagoco. Analyzing the SWS second-quarter survey on "Change in Quality of Life," she reveals the hope of ordinary Filipinos "to have better lives in the next year," while at the same time baring their present difficult conditions, thus: "The survey, from 27 to 30 June among 1,200 respondents nationwide, showed 32% of Filipinos were optimistic about improvement in their Personal Quality of Life in 12 months, while 11% believed their lot would worsen. Hence, Net Personal Optimism stood at +22, higher than last quarter’s +20, and the second highest score under the Arroyo administration after a +29 recorded in November 2006. SWS said Net Personal Optimism has historically ranged from +10 to +19. From April 1984 to this quarter, this averaged +14, with optimists (32%) outnumbering pessimists (18%). The two quarters surveyed under the Marcos regime showed net scores of –4 and +10. During Aquino’s term, a high of +31 and a low of +7 were recorded, while under Ramos, it reached +33 twice, but dipped to +6. The high score under Estrada was +26, while neutral ratings were recorded twice. Under Arroyo, net optimism sunk to negative thrice, the worst at –13 in March 2005."
A timeline graph of abovecited data shows much more optimism than pessimism during the Aquino and Ramos administrations (in spite of coup attempts, energy crisis, Gulf War, and rice shortage) than the Estrada and Arroyo periods (because of currency crisis, Mindanao, Abu Sayyaf, juetengate, US-Iraq War, and steep oil price hikes).
Prospects for agriculture
Add to this Amy Remo’s Inquirer report (14 August) on the lowered expectations of farm sector growth from 5.0% to 3.5%: "Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap conceded last week that production targets this year were no longer within reach. Yap traced the slower growth in the first half to the dry spell and the fact that the private sector did not load up on supplies during the first quarter because of sufficient stocks. Agriculture accounts for one-fifth of the domestic economy." This projection was seconded in BusinessWorld by Raymond Jude Dumaual (14 August): "Rolando T. Dy, Executive Director of the Center for Food and Agri-Business of the University of Asia and the Pacific, said the original government target will now be difficult to achieve. ‘We will be lucky to attain a growth of 2% – 3%. The impact of the lack of rain will be carried over to the second semester, especially since the planting season has been delayed,’ Dy said."
The Bernardo report
The first-quarter GDP growth of 6.9%, already well analyzed by economists Cielito Habito and Romeo Bernardo, is benefitting mainly the elite because the boom is mostly in the property and real estate sector. In contrast, jobs for the rural poor are not being generated because of timidity of capital to invest in agriculture where most of our underemployed and jobless are situated.
Quoting Bernardo’s "Special Report on the Philippines" dated 31 July 2007: "In comparison to services, the agriculture industry appears locked in a timewarp with its fortunes and contribution to growth tied to weather.... In manufacturing, despite ten years of a weeding out process of inefficient firms after the Asian crisis, investments in the sector’s productive capacity have not happened, a development that has to be seen in the light of China’s competitive advantage in manufacturing. The inability of said sector, which comprised 24% of GDP in 2006, to generate sufficient local employment in turn helps to explain the exodus of Filipino workers and the remittance phenomenon… Reported slippages in the 2007 1st semester collections of the two main revenue agencies (10% behind target), has renewed market worries about government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation."
Cheaper medicines
Beyond the poor’s hope for a lottery prize is their need for cheaper medicines. Butch Fernandez reported in the BusinessMirror, (14 August): "Sen. Mar Roxas II, Chairman of the Committee on Trade and Commerce, saw no problem in fasttracking approval of the bill, noting the same proposal had been approved on third reading by the Senate in the last Congress.... The bill, however, got snagged in the House which failed to pass its counterpart bill owing to lack of quorum." The Roxas bill for cheaper medicines basically opens up competition in the pharmaceuticals market.
As the bickering on Committee chairmanships ends in both Chambers, it is high time for our lawmakers to concentrate on helping the little people among us. Now is also high time for Malacañang and Congress to focus their newlyfound LEDAC teamwork on lifting ordinary Filipinos whose condition has not significantly improved.
And, speaking of competition and little people, are there any concerned Filipinos out there willing to help a small guy named Justin Junio, who at age five swam 6 kilometers across the MactanCebu channel in October 2006? His father Jose (a retired Air Force veteran on a modest pension) informed me that Justin is training to break the San Francisco-Alcatraz channel swim record held by a seven-year old from Arizona.
Achieving the improbable
Remember the First Philippine Mount Everest Expedition that achieved the improbable with our support, thus proving the mettle of Filipino youth, in 2006-2007? Let us do it again for swimmer Justin Junio.
