PNoy fails in fight vs. poverty-Credit Suisse
VOL. XVIII NO. 2 (October 18 – 24, 2014)
LIFE’S INSPIRATIONS: “If you fully listen to, and obey, the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on youand accompany you if you obey the Lord your God…” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2, the Holy Bible).
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PNOY FAILS IN FIGHT VS. POVERTY-CREDIT SUISSE: If anyone from the Aquino government’s economic team needed proof that President Aquino failed to improve the lives of Filipinos with his four years in office, they must read the latest report of the Credit Suisse Group, which says that the gap between the rich and the poor in the country remains wide, and there remains a “very high inequality” in terms of wealth distribution among our citizens.
The report also confirmed that about 76 percent of the country’s wealth in 2014 is controlled by a very small minority of only about 10% of our richest individuals. This 10% does not mean 10% of the entire 100 million population of the Philippines. Rather, it means that among the country’s richest, only 10% of them control 76% of the country’s wealth. How many are the people that we can count as the country’s richest?
My perception, based on available data, is that, there are only about 100 or so families who can be considered as the Philippines’ richest. Consequently, only 10% of this 100 or so families—or only about 10 families—are really very, very rich, because they are the ones that control 76% of the country’s wealth. I am quite sure that these 10 very, very rich families are either foreigners or of foreign descent, and not native Filipinos.
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WHY IS PNOY BORROWING WHEN HE HAS P500 B TO SPEND?I am challenging President Aquino’s finance, budget, and economic officials to kindly explain reports that his government is seeking to borrow some P284 billion, allegedly to be used in the rehabilitation of areas ravaged by Typhoon Yolanda, when, in the proposed 2015 budget, President Aquino has around P500 billion which he can disburse on his own.
Indeed, the question for Aquino is: why borrow some P284 billion when you, as President, already have, under your control, some P500 billion in unprogrammed funds and lump sum allocations for 2015? Why not use these unprogrammed funds and lump sum allocations for rehabilitation, so that you will not have to borrow so much again?
The problem really is that every time the government borrows from external and internal sources, it is not only the government that becomes indebted and obliged to pay. Every Filipino citizen, in one way or another, will be obliged to pay what the government would borrow, in terms of taxes and other government fees. Maybe Aquino can start thinking about the welfare of his countrymen, for a change?
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SPIRITUAL ANGLES IN RP ECONOMIC WOES: If we look deeper into these economic woes, it is not difficult to see the spiritual and Biblical angles in them. Insofar as the foreigners getting richer and Filipino natives getting poorer and poorer right in the natives’ own country is concerned, there is a Biblical admonition that this is going to happen, if the natives will turn their backs on God.
In Deuteronomy 28:15 and 43-44 of the Bible, we are told that if a people no longer listens to God and no longer obeys Him, He will send these people some 53 curses, principal of which is the curse of foreigners getting richer and richer, and becoming political and governmental leaders of natives as well.
Insofar as the erratic and childlike governance of leaders are concerned, the Bible, in its Isaiah 4, warns that if a people turned their backs on God, He will make “mere youths their officials, children will rule over them”, exactly like what former Sen. Joker Arroyo said of the current Aquino officials. If we want relief from all of these, there is only one way to change, as Deuteronomy 28:1-2, is saying.
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PLEASE LISTEN: “Tambalang Batas at Somintac”, jointly aired at DZEC, 1062 kHz in Manila, 1080 kHz in Dagupan City, 711 kHz in Naga City, 1260 kHz in Lucena City, 1224 kHz in Davao City, and at www.eaglenews.ph, Mondays to Fridays, at 6 a.m.; “Kakampi Mo Ang Batas”, at 103.7 mHz in Don Carlos, Bukidnon, Mondays to Fridays, at 7 a.m.; “Kakampi Mo Ang Batas” at 801 kHz on the AM band (Panay Island), Mondays to Fridays, at 10 a.m.; and “Kakampi Mo Ang Batas” at 107.5 Win FM, Roxas, Isabela (Saturday, 5:30 a.m., and Sunday, 7 a.m.).
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