The State of the Nation

Until now people are still talking about the state of the nation address. In social media, private conversation, the halls of congress, the SONA is not good. Since the time of President Quezon who started SONA in Philippine history, the country has never been, according to the perennial comments of critics, any better than the previous years. Marcos, Cory, Ramos, Estrada were beset with the same pessimism, incidentally by the same pessimistic group who had nothing better to do. If they had jobs, education, opportunities or skills, why are they in the streets shouting slogans and epithets, burning effigies, marching, and carrying placards with barely intelligible messages? They say they have never felt the prosperity the government is boosting about and the number of jobless poor people is rising! Why, are they the poor?

Poverty is a reality in the world, everywhere, in the industrialized and third world countries. The eyes of poverty stare tourists in the cities of London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, and Rome. But they are a minority, as the unproductive poor are also a minority in the Philippines. Why is there poverty in the world? For any or all of four common reasons: lack of education, lack of skills for employment, lack of opportunities, or simple laziness. Fettered to any or all of these basic faults, the poor will always remain poor regardless of what the government is doing with them, with or without dole outs from DSWD. They have little choice even if they have jobs too.

Is the Philippine economy progressing? The answer is obvious in the skyrocketing sales of products and goods in industries, malls, condominiums, and other business endeavors. The world economic assessors regard our economy with the highest esteem among the emerging tigers in Asia. Poverty? Yes, there will always be poverty in the country, and the lazy poor without skills, without education, without opportunities will never feel the impact of economic growth until the basic causes of poverty are addressed by the poor themselves with help from government.

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