Why does poverty persist in the Philippines?

         The Philippines have been suffering from poverty problem and it continues to exist until today. There have been a lot of alleviation programs introduced by the government but the dilemma keeps on emerging.

The economic problem of Philippine government persists to surface in the society and it is sometime very tiresome to imagine. It gives too much headache not just to the Philippine government but also to the whole Filipino people.

The problem on poverty has been blame to lack of political will of those officials running the government office in uplifting the people's lives from financial scarcity. Some have pinpointed it to lack of business investors from both local and foreign capitalists. While other says that it is due to rampant criminality that happened everyday in the different parts of the country. Many utters that Filipinos are lazy and lacks the required education and if educated the course being taken are not appropriate to jobs available in the market.

People's ideas and opinion are proportionally divided. But what is really the real issue why poverty continues to devastate the majority of the Filipinos?

Here are some of the many reasons which I believe contributes a lot to poverty situation of the Philippines.

Economic debt - the swelling amount of debts of the Philippine government from both local and foreign lenders makes the poverty situation getting worst. Every year the Philippine government has paying billion of pesos on the interest and on the principal amount of obligations. In the debts record of the Bureau of Treasury of the Philippines for the calendar year 2009, the external or foreign debt reached P 1,926,599,000,000.00 (1.93 trillion pesos). On the other hand, the internal or domestic debt reached to P2,470,040,000,000.00 (2.47 trillion pesos). In total, the Philippines have a combined debt of P4,396,639,000,000.00 (4.40 trillion pesos). The "National Government Debt Service" for the same year reached about P622,287,000,000.00 (622.30 billion pesos).

Corruption is also in the top list that makes poverty one of great social predicaments of the Philippines. The practice of corruption contributes immensely in dragging the Filipinos into poverty. Because of the greedy ambition of some leaders in the government many have suffer from too much financial insufficiency.

There are still a lot of reasons that makes poverty persist in the Philippines. The above example is just a few of the many explanation why the economic shortage always ahead of the Filipinos. But no matter how the Philippine' people is devastated by this social predicaments. There is still hope that Filipinos can hurdle the present social dilemma that strongly blocks the economic prosperity of the Philippines.

Cesar E. Gealogo, RC, Police Officer 3, Published Author

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5892409

        Poverty exist in the Philippines because of some factors. It is a big problem here in the Philippines, I strongly believe that fighting poverty is not enough, however. Poverty is not something that exists solely in the material world. It is also a concept that persists in the minds of the people, therefore a renewing of the mind is needed to change the culture of poverty here in the Philippines.

 Poverty is a mindset that we have to cast away. Once we remove the delineation that exist in our society then we can move on and achieved what is truly essential,the knowledge that we are the shapers of our lives, we are the captains of our future.

Land Redistribution in the Philippines

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)

By Neil Jerome C. Morales

     The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) was a land reform law mandated by Republic Act No. 6657, signed by President Corazon Aquino on June 10, 1988. It was the fifth land reform law in fifty years, following the land reform laws of Presidents Manuel Quezon, Ramon Magsaysay, Diosdado Macapagal and Ferdinand Marcos.

     According to RA 6657, CARP aims “for a more equitable distribution and ownership of land.” It meant to distribute lands to farmers in a span of 10 years, but was extended by the 11^th Congress due to delays in land distribution and lack of budget allocation.

      Section 3 of RA 6657 defined agrarian reform as the “redistribution of lands, regardless of crops or fruits produced, to farmers and regular farm workers who are landless” and “all other arrangements alternative to the physical redistribution of lands, such as production or profit-sharing, labor administration and the distribution of shares of stock which will allow beneficiaries to receive a just share of the fruits of the lands they work.”

Vast agricultural lands are distributed to the farmers tilling the land, whereas only a maximum of five hectares can be retained by the landlords, and three hectares for each of their children.

     However, a common CARP loophole was that landlords escaped relinquishing their lands through land reclassifications. Lands classified by local zoning ordinances as residential, commercial and industrial lands are excluded from CARP.

SOURCE:
Department of Agrarian Reform website, http://www.dar.gov.ph

   The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program is an excellent and a wise act because it gives the farmers their right to cultivate their own land. It is their right to have their equal share, so that no person can oppress them. But unfortunately many Filipinos didn't obey this act some of them are voracious  they don't give what the farmers should have. In some countries CARP is progressive they give what the farmers should have it is sad to know that here in our country this simple act cannot be done by our fellow Filipino residents. They are afraid that there property will be shared, they want their property for their own good.

    They don't realized how the farmers need this property, they need it to sustain their economic problem. So that they can help their family and so they can send their children to school. As what I have observed children of farmers just graduated in High School they did not enter college because of financial problem. So many of them as early as 17 years old entered married life, they don't have dreams to pursue because of this problem. Even if they have personal dreams they cannot proceed because of financial problem.

     If they obey these kind of act many Filipino can leave there old boring life to new ones because of the opportunity given to these people, they will have their  own properties and live the life they wanted to be.