From Inquirer.net:

RP 5th in world hunger survey

First posted 04:47:26 (Mla time) November 05, 2008
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines ranks No. 5 in the world when it comes to citizens who have had “little or no food at all” in the past year, a global survey on hunger said.

Gallup International asked over 58,000 people from 55 countries this question: “Have there been times in the last 12 months when you and/or your family have not had enough to eat?”

Gallup, a Zurich-based international group, conducted the interviews between June and September for its World Food Survey.

Four in 10 Filipinos or 40 percent said they “often or sometimes” lacked food in the past year, according to Gallup International-Voice of the People 2008.

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It struck me that in a country where three of our richest businessmen (need I mention? Tan, Ayala, and Sy) make it to the the Forbes list of richest dollar-billionaires in the world, 2 out of 5 Filipinos are hungry. The graph of social and economic hierarchy in our country is one with the top getting higher and higher and the bottom wider and wider.

This is why the PNP euro-carrying police case and the Bolante fertilizer scam irks the hell out of us ordinary citizens. Programs that should help drive the poor out of poverty are being milked by crooks, and short-term solutions will only get us through till the next elections, if the politicians are lucky enough that we don't find any corruption in it.

Just think: the 728-million-peso fertilizer scam would already feed 9.71 million Filipinos for a day, if we give them a 25-peso meal three times a day. According to August 2007 figures, there are 11.6 million Filipinos in Metro Manila. With that amount, you can feed 84% of Metro Manila's population, which is roughly the current poverty level (pegged at 80 percent).

This only factors in the fertilizer scam. The NBN-ZTE scandal is another matter to be discussed (in which case, what had happened to the star witness Lozada?). And this is not only issues within one administration. Every year we get something explosive for corruption in every administration. Need I mention former president Estrada's Boracay mansion?

In a larger perspective, these scandals undermine the Filipinos' rights to live comfortably in their own country. Nay, they seek survival not comfort. One can just imagine how miserable it is to be a Filipino, but yet we still strive from day to day, with hope for a better life and a better future. Many parents believe that if they can't have a better life, at least their children will. We need to provide them with opportunities that come with hope, that doors and windows are open for the millions of Filipinos.

We need a revolutionary change, a structural change, in our society. We need a change in ideology, and end the elite political government that will eventually starve the people to death unless we do something about it.

It is with hope that we do our part in nation-building. The first step is to demolish the old constructs and create a strong foundation for our country to build on.