Govt to present outdated report on poverty to UN
By LILITA BALANE / Newsbreak | 11/07/2008 6:31 PM
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It may be outrageous, it may be surreal, but the government will declare before the whole world that poverty situation has improved in the country.
Such could be the distorted message that the Philippine government might send to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR) when it talks on how it has kept its commitment to protect the rights of the Filipino people, a human rights group said Thursday.
In 1976, the Philippine government ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights which gave the government the responsibility to provide its people access to food, education, adequate housing, decent jobs and healthcare among others.
Renato Mabunga, secretary-general of the Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates (PAHRA), said the government is set to present a report on November 11 to 12 that is already outdated and should have been reported before the UN Committee three years ago.
Every year, the UNCESCR schedules countries who will present their country status reports before the Committee. But according to Mabunga, every time the table turns to the Philippines, the government always fails to submit a periodic report on time.
The government will send its representatives to Geneva, Switzerland to present a 2006 report, a combination of three reports which the government was unable to submit in 1995, 2000, and 2005.
“Rosy economic picture” in ’06 report
“ [The government] is most likely to say it has implemented policies and programs to satisfy social and economic rights such as access to food, employment, housing, education, and health services,” said the NGO-PO Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, an alliance of non-government organizations who came up with an alternative report for the UNCESCR.
In the 2006 report, the government boasted of an average three to five percent growth in key sectors of the economy from 2001 to 2004.
Moreover, the official report said that poverty incidence in the Philippines has gone down to 30.4 percent in 2003, which according to Bernie Larin of PhilRights is not the real situation of the country at present.
He said the country landed fifth among the world’s most hungry nations with 4 out of 10 Filipinos admitting that they experience hunger in the past year based from the recent survey of Gallup International.
More pictures to show
“Almost one-third of our school age children are not in school, 1.84 million for elementary age children and 3.94 million of our youth with ages 12-15. The poor are most likely to drop out of elementary grade compared to the rich families,” said Celia Soriano of Education Network Philippines.
Medical Actions Group, Inc added that despite the government’s recognition of the Right to Health, access to quality and affordable healthcare continues to elude the poor families and vulnerable sectors in need of medical aid.
Unlike the claims of the government that the country’s labor force increase from 29.674 million to 34.571 million since 1998 to 2003, Atty. Joselito S. Calivoso, Jr, Unit Coordinator of Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal (Saligan) said that unemployment in the Philippines has been a perennial problem.
Calivoso also said that the government relies heavily on overseas employment to reduce the number of the unemployed.
NGOs’ report criticized the government’s inability to provide adequate housing while forced evictions continue. About 48, 432 homes were demolished since 2001 and about 50 percent of the evicted families were not provided relocation.
NGOs to appear before UNCESCR
Representatives from NGO-PO Network for Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights will also appear before the UNCESCR on November 10 to present their report.
The Committee vowed to consider their report when the government delivers its own report the next day.
In case the UNCESCR shall find the government negligent of its commitments, Mabunga said the Committee cannot press sanctions on government.
“UNCESCR can only provide recommendations for the government through its concluding observations,” he added.
