CAN'T STOP ILLEGAL LOGGING IN MINDANAO

QUESTION: Cmdr John, they say it is illegal logging that caused the devastation in Mindanao. What can you say about this?

ANSWER: Housing is one of the primary needs of human being. Man cannot live without house. There are six layers of housing materials according to budget.

(1) VERY POOR - Grass or Nipa roof, bamboo structure, whatever lumber available nearby by self harvesting, forget the flooring.

(2) POOR - Nipa roof, coco lumber structure, whatever wood available nearby by self-harvesting, forget the flooring.

(3) LOWER MIDDLE CLASS - Ordinary galvanized roof, whatever wood available in market, wood or bamboo flooring.

(4) MIDDLE CLASS - Galvanized roof, wood and cement structure, cemented floor.

(5) UPPER MIDDLE CLASS - Galvanized roof, cement and steel structure, ceramic tile floor.

(6) RICH - Galvanized or brick roof, cement and steel structure, marble floor, first class wood finish and furnishings.

ANALYSIS

Mindanao is homeland of 2 million impoverished households. The poor consume so much wood for housing and cooking fuel.

As long as poverty persists, no one can stop the Mindanaoans from harvesting their trees. When you talk about illegal loggingin Mindanao, you are talking about more than a million violators, halos lahat mahihirap.

After Sendong destroyed their houses, they have to build new houses. It means there is going to be a surge in demand for lumber, more trees is going to be cut. All the tree cutting for the past 20 years, they are all gonna harvest such huge volume in 2012 to be able to rebuild.

SHELTER IN EVACUATION CAMP IS RESORT FOR MINDANAO POOR

QUESTION: Cmdr John, why is it that we have not heard Mindanaoans complain about their shelter and life in evacuation camp in schools despite lack of water and sanitation?

ANSWER: Life in evacuation camp is already like a RESORT VACATION for the poor people of Mindanao. Lifestyle, security, and provisions of survival in the evacuation camp is hundred times more pleasant compared to their normal lives. You should have seen the realities of poverty in Mindanao before Sendong.

Sabi nila, kawawa ang mga evacuees, malamig matulog sa semento na walang banig. hehehehe, baka hindi pa kayo nakatulog sa pinag-tagpi-tagping kahoy, hehehe mas masarap sa semento.

Rationale of Poverty Eradication

QUESTION: Sir John, why are you so concerned about eradicating poverty?

ANSWER: Poverty is the most cruel, ruthless, and inhumane condition of life. Poverty can suck anyone even those who are well-off now. Society must have a mechanism to save people out of poverty and provide a safety-net to prevent people from falling down under the poverty line.

Many people get rich because they exploit undefended land, uneducated labor, and destroy natural resources. The more these exploiters succeed, the more people will fall into poverty. That is why we are here, to provide a strong force to protect land, labor, and nature, as a way to eradicate poverty.

Capital Flight and Poverty

When the poor wage earner gets a bonus, he would probably buy local stuffs to improve the condition of his house -- money is spent domestically and creates more jobs. When the elite business owner gets high profit as a result of low wage payments, he brings the money out of the country to spend it as a tourista. The increase of monies flying out of the country creates an imploding pressure on the local industies.

A Working Person Should not be Poor

There is something wrong with the equitability of the economic system of a nation when a head of the family who works full-time cannot afford for a decent house amortization, education for his children, nutritious food on the table, choices in healthcare, and a little spending for social entertainment.

The Strongest Resistance to the Fight Against Poverty

Fight against Poverty is difficult in Philippines because there is an unconscious strong resistance from the middle-class up to the elites. When poverty is eradicated, they will lose their houseslaves (maids). Philippine exportation of housemaids worldwide is a huge industry, but it is just a small fraction of the Poverty situation in our homeland.

Unproductivity and Poverty

An unproductive person eats the same amount of food compared to the productive ones. Poverty is a result when unproductive persons who are fit to work are given free food like people do to their pet dogs.

Downside of Conditional Cash Transfer Program

QUESTION: Sir John, will the Conditional Cash Transfer Program of PNoy be effective in helping the poorest of the poor?

ANSWER: In my study, the answer is NO. PNoy's version of CCTP is designed only to be benefited by those poor in the cities and easily-accessible municipalities.

PNoy's CCTP version will encourage the continued influx of poor people from the rural areas (where most of them lives) to the cities. It is like calling all poor people to come down from the rural areas to the cities so they can collect their CCTP benefits. Among the many "Conditions" to benefit from the CCTP is that the kids of the beneficiary household must go to school and the payee must have an account in Landbank.

Seven (7) out of ten (10) poorest provinces in the Philippines can be found in Mindanao and most of them are classified as remote rural areas -- very far from schools and the idea of a "bank" is very out of their league. So, for our top 48 poorest rural human settlements in remote places in Mindanao, sorry, the CCTP will most likely not reach them.

DEFINITELY, the Conditional Cash Transfer Program of PNoy Administration is not well-targetted to the remote rural areas where most of the empoverished population lives. The government becomes a LIAR when it claims that CCTP is an effective poverty eradication program.

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Cash transfer program seen to meet MDG
By Helen M. Flores (philstar.com) Updated November 21, 2010 07:02 PM
URL: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=632170&publicationSubCategoryId=200

MANILA, Philippines - The Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) could help the government fulfill its commitment to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of halving extreme hunger and poverty by 2015, an international adviser on poverty said.

Tarcisio Castaneda, a social protection specialist, said the 4Ps, a conditional cash transfer program, empowers extremely poor families to seek access to the government’s health and education services, which in the long run can lift them up from extreme poverty.

“The CCT program’s safety net component aims to provide social assistance for short term poverty reduction but in the long run eradicates poverty by building the capacity of children of poor families to complete schooling and improve health conditions, which is considered a huge investment in human capital,” said Castaneda. “In essence, the CCT helps the country fulfill its commitment to the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that include eradication of extreme hunger and poverty, access to maternal and child health care and universal access to primary education.”

Castaneda, who conducted extensive studies on the impact of CCT programs in Latin American and Asian countries, said the program’s key requirement for poor families to access health and education services in exchange for cash assistance should not be viewed as sanctions. In fact, he said these conditions are aimed to “empower them to better their living conditions and immediately get access to cash assistance.”

He said some of the countries that have successfully implemented CCT programs to address poverty were Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.

Castaneda said the key designs of the CCT program is sensitive to the Filipinos’ culture and values that will enable them to comply to the conditions by having their children complete school days and undergo regular health services.

Vagrants and Rugby-boys in the Streets

As long as I see vagrants sleeping under the bridge, the youth sniffing rugby at the roadside, mentally insane persons walking naked or and extremely dirty in public places, and beggars outside my car's windshield, THE PHILIPPINE GOVERNMENT FAILS TO WORK.