NO ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

One of the three factors that wouldn’t let the Philippines to revive is its poor economy. According to the National Statistical Board (NSCB), the latest poverty survey proved that the population of poor people increases since they grew from 23.8 million in 2003 to 27.6 million in 2006 and at the same time 2.7% of the average family income fell. One out of every three Filipinos is poor and there are a lot of Filipinos consider them poor. Alessandro Magnoli Bocchi, the World Bank’s senior economist for East Asian and Pacific Region, has noted that the country is experiencing a slowdown in export growth. The poor people experience poverty a lot more while the rich people continue their luxurious life since there are a lot of structural imbalances in the local economy since high population growth leads to unequal distribution of resources. According to the Philippine Institute of Development Studies, 60% of Philippines’ economic projects, including the 15 billion from overseas workers remittances’ are informal so even as the economy grows, the country’s deprived masses just get poorer.

Sources: http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/mar/26/yehey/metro/20080326met1.ht

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20080317hed3.html

ADDICTED

The Philippines is known as the ‘text capital of the world’ and Filipinos are labeled kings of text messaging worldwide. Each mobile phone user in the Philippines sends out at least ten messages per day compared to the users in the United Kingdom that sends out at least three text messages per day. The four top mobile service providers stated that at the end of 2007, 42.78 million people in the Philippines are mobile subscribers. In two Filipinos, one is a subscriber to a mobile phone service. There are more cell phone users in the Philippines than landline owners. According to a leading research company, it is the first country in the world where mobile users spend more on data services than on voice. Texting is now developed into a Philippine cultural trait or hobby.

Source: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/07/009214.htm

PGMA…MINIMIZING EXPENSES?

This weekend, the President will attend the Asia-Pacific Cooperation leaders’ summit in Lima, Peru. More than 40 congressmen and congresswomen signed up wanting to join the trip but it was cut down to 40 to minimize expenses.

Last 1997, our country had an economic crisis which lead us to borrow money from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Before a country can borrow from the IMF, they first require the country to agree on something that would secure them that the country would be able to pay their debt. Minimizing travel expenses is one of the IMF’s recommendations that should be agreed upon.

I think that this is a good recommendation to minimize government expenditures and to increase government revenues. Thus, our country would have a big chance to experience budget balance.

Source: http://beta2.philstar.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=416094