by Nicasio Angelo Agustin
A few weeks ago, news of P-Noy’s latest job description – that of a used car salesman – became significant fodder for national news. The sale of his third-hand Porsche, to the tune of 4.5 million pesos, was greeted by cheers by almost everyone who had an opinion about his toy – in stark contrast to the jeers he reaped when he bought the sports car.
While there was little doubt that he did not use public funds, the collective reaction when the President acquired a vehicle that cost nine times that of a decent, socialized housing unit was an expression of disgust at the distastefulness of the act. The fact that nearly 40 million Filipinos still live on less than two dollars a day does little to assuage the hurt, even if P-Noy did not steal to buy his Porsche.
Two dollars is worlds away from 4.5 million pesos. But these two worlds exist side by side in the Philippines, and summarizes the lurid state of our nation (so very few haves, and so very many have-nots).
We can think of our country as having two faces of extreme.
The first face is a vibrant, promising cosmopolitan face driven by technology, remittances and the private sector (telecommunication, BPOs, modern architecture, a real estate surge in private communities, giant temples of commerce called malls), boasting of upwardly mobile lifestyles by purveyors of taste who are in sync with New York, Milan, Tokyo and London and who travel abroad on business class for shopping trips every month.
The second face is the one worn by our urban and rural poor: those who do not have enough to eat once a day let alone send their children to school; who live with rats, roaches and five other families in a five by five meter space; who do not have adequate access to potable water or health, maternal and child care; who continue to live in hovels or disaster-prone areas because they do not have a choice, and who earn a living by selling stuff on the streets or driving a trisikad or doing menial jobs for a paltry daily rate.
The first face is worn by less than one percent of the entire Philippine population, and boils down to a dozen or so families who hold and define the national economy in their enterprises and corporations. The second face is the face of an average Filipino who dreams of a life of simple dignity, but wakes up to a harsh, everyday battle for survival.
The latest statistics show that the per capita GDP in the Philippines is 90,000 pesos – we are 152nd out of 215 countries measured. More disturbing, the country is 36th out of 136 countries in terms of inequality, with a gini index of more than 45. This means that while the first face gets prettier, the second continues to degenerate. And most painful of all, there are more Filipinos living on subsistence levels than in Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Inequality is ugly. It is an ugly reality that defines the state of our nation today, and it is the most critical reality that needs to be addressed in order for everyone involved – especially the President of the nation – to make inroads on improving the standard of living and the quality of life of all Filipinos. According to the latest Human Development Report (HDR), the Philippines is ranked 100th out of 172 countries measured in terms of the overall well-being of the population (called the human developement index or HDI). The HDI measure includes life expectancy, literacy, quality of education and standard of living. Other Asian countries such as Malaysia and Thailand are far ahead of us.
That Porsche was a vulgar symbol of inequality in the Philippines. I’m glad P-Noy finally got rid of it.
Feel free to send your comments to nic_agustin@yahoo.com.
