Poverty in Q1 2018 is 42%: Time to Reposition the Debate

Q1 2018 self-reported poverty is 42%, the same as it was right after Duterte assumed office. The 42%figure is a historical low since SWS started taking the survey in 1983.

However, even as the Duterte administration has hit the figure twice, poverty reduction rate is almost flat during the entire seven quarters of the Duterte regime. But again it is too early to make anything of this. Self-reported poverty was in fact rising during the entire first four years of the Aquino II administration, before plunging down to around 44% in 2016 just before he left and Duterte rode the momentum.

Note that we are still talking about a national median monthly poverty threshold of P13,000 per family. That would mean that 42% of Filipino families were living below that threshold, with a very high number in the Visayas. The threshold is set higher at P20,000 in NCR. However, that's still just over P660 for 30% of families in the NCR that are self-reporting as poor by that low standard.

Although really very slowly, self-reported poverty has been going down for a while now. It is time for the Left to reposition the debate from poverty alone and to focus really on inequality. The thresholds are very low, especially compared with all the good stuff that the middle class can now afford.

https://www.sws.org.ph/swsmain/artcldisppage/?artcsyscode=ART-20180425175540

 

 

Satisfaction with Duterte is high in Q1 2018

Public satisfaction with Rodrigo Duterte is slightly down from December (2 pts), but is still high at +56 this month. The high satisfaction is reflected across classes, despite a curious number of undecided middle class. But that's really insignificant.

Note that this comes with the initial effects of Train, which many in the Left said would be bad for the poor. True enough there was slight movement in the Class E scores. But again, a comfortable majority of them (65%) still approve of Duterte.

The one good news is that Duterte still has opposition in the youth. "Millennials" (ages 18-24) continue to register the highest dissatisfaction with their president at 20%. The bad news is that the same group has been liking him more and more each quarter. (Curiously, yesterday's youth, or those who are now within the 25-34 age bracket, have the highest approval for Digs. Is this what happens when one "grows up"? One becomes older and wiser? Ten thousand kills are just fair game for a dedicated regime, yes?)

Anyway, a friendly reminder to the Left on May 1: Even as Duterte has apparently turned his back on the Anti-Endo pledge, on Red Day they'll be shouting at the effigy of a man who is well-liked by everyone else. I think this means we should work to propagate the cause of labor some more and continue to inspire the ranks up to within the lower middle class -- if they don't fight for better conditions, few others will. And the spiral of social decay continues.

The next data to check are the quarterly self-reported Poverty, which should be in anytime soon.

https://www.sws.org.ph/swsmain/artcldisppage/?artcsyscode=ART-20180411144206

Laban ng Masa General Assembly

When: Saturday, April 21, 2018, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Benitez Theater, UP College of Education, UP Diliman

FB event: https://web.facebook.com/events/568411293543111/

REPOST: Labor hesitant about Palace Meeting sans knowledge of final EO version

“We are not sure if we will go to the meeting with the President as we don’t know which version of the Executive Order (EO) Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III is once again peddling,” Nagkaisa Labor Coalition said in a hastily called press conference following reports of a much delayed meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte happening in mid-April.

President Duterte, in a meeting with labor leaders on February 27, promised that he and his legal team will look into the workers’ draft EO submitted jointly by Nagkaisa and Kilusang Mayo Uno with the support of the National Anti-Poverty Commission. He promised to sign the issuance by March 15, to no avail.

“The truth is, the Secretary has been obstructing our efforts these past few years. He has been misleading the president and has been fooling the public by twisting labor’s position and making it appear we are unreasonable,” Nagkaisa said.

“The workers’ draft has moved from total prohibition of contractualization to a framework of prohibition of contractualization that would allow certain exemptions for contracting out of work, but subject to the decision of the National Tripartite Industrial Peace Council.” Nagkaisa added.

“We abhor the abuse and exploitation of workers through contractualization as it has become the convenient excuse of unscrupulous employers and manpower agencies and pseudo cooperatives to pay low wages, disregard social protection, bust unions and fire workers at will. We believed the President share these abhorrence with irresponsible employers,” Nagkaisa added.

Nagkaisa calls on government to decide where its policy on addressing contractualization stands. “Is it for more profits to employers at the expense of workers’ rights and welfare; or adhering to state guarantees of providing full protection to workers’ rights and welfare that would bring about sustainable growth to the economy?”

“Secretary Bello shamelessly foisted that labor is calling for the total prohibition of contractualization and deliberately misled the public and the President that workers are hardlining and demanding the impossible. He obstructed and derailed the democratic processing of an EO,” Nagkaisa added.

“He has acted beyond the pale and has shown to what depths he will unconscionably betray his sworn trust and the public interest. He must now disclose what this purported April 16 EO contains. It is something we have never seen,” said Nagkaisa.

Nagkaisa only learned about a supposed new round of meetings in Malacañang via news reports as no official invitations and meeting agenda have been received by any labor group.

http://www.nagkaisa.org/2018/04/labor-hesitant-about-palace-meeting.html