Economic growth

There was a time I was watching the news on TV and it says that the Philippine economy was rising for the past several months and its getting stronger. They said that one of the reason is the dollar remittances sent by millions of filipino overseas workers around the world to their love ones and the good governance of Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo who, as an economist, never stop finding solutions to the economic problem of her native land. Her Excellency did a great job indeed as a fact, she ranked number four as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes.com. She untiringly fights terrorism, corruptions and poverty and as a result of her excellent job, she again encouraged more foreign investors to invest in the Philippines that makes the Philippine economy quite stronger than the past administrations.

For the past administrations, none of them (the then Presidents) strengthen the value of Philippine peso against US Dollar, instead during their terms Uncle Sam overpowers Juan Dela Cruz in terms of monetary value coz' they were focused on controlling the price of prime commodities to rise which benefited the Filipino people most likely the poor. But we cannot hide the truth that though they did control the price of prime commodities to rise, they can't manage to control the value of US Dollar against Philippine peso and it even reached to Php56/US Dollar.

For Her Excellency President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's brilliant ideas and dedicated service to the native land, little by little she empowers Juan Dela Cruz over Uncle Sam. She slash down the then Php56/US Dollar to only Php42/US Dollar. It's not an easy task and we all know that. That's why she earns a big respect from the leaders of the neighbor country & the business sectors as well.

But on the other hand, prices of petroleum products continues to increase almost every week which triggers the transport sectors to stage protests against her administration. It was immediately followed by the increase of vegetable prices and other prime commodities.

Non Government Organizations (NGO) were always conducting feeding program for the under-nourished children in metro manila and in some provinces. Their objective is to give kids the right nourishments they need. Statistics shows that the higher percentage of under-nourished kids are in metro manila and still growing in numbers. They were the ones you see in the middle of the streets chasing cars and passenger jeepneys begging for someone to give them something they can use to end their starvation. But the truth is not all of them have the same goal, some of them is begging not to buy food but to buy something that can make them forget the pain they feel for being starved and the cheapest among them is the so-called rugby, they say that when they sniff it, they forget starvation and started getting hyper. You can even see some of the beggars who even uses their babies while begging, they don't even think of their baby's safety or is it because they can't be able to think right because of starvation?

Thanks God there are some NGO's who are somehow concern for the kids, thanks to them for having a big heart to the needy kids which someday might be one of the good leaders given the right nourishments they need.

There was once a documentary I've watched, I just can't remember its title but the documentarist talks about the families living under the bridge in almost every part of metro manila. She documented the risk of living under the bridge and even ask them why do they choose to build their homes under the bridge and they say that for them, it's the safest place to build home. Though risky, there's nothing they can do coz' they can't afford to rent even a room.
For the increasing number of homeless families, the documentarist then ended the story saying "where there's a bridge, there's a family underneath".

As I am writing this blog I've heard the news on the radio that senator-elect Antonio Trillanes IV together with his co-accused Magdalo Group walked out of the court room while on hearing at the Makati Regional Trial Court and march towards The Peninsula Manila which is located in Ayala Avenue. We don't know what will happen next to this incident. Is it another revolt against the administration? Is it their way of expressing their grievances? Will they call for the president to step down to her post? No matter what their goal is, I know that they had a purpose.

Now, can we say that the Philippines now have an economic growth amidst the fact that one of every three Filipino's wanted the president to step down to her post for a change?

Instead, we must admit that no matter how hard we try, as long as personal gain is in the mind of our leaders, corruption follows and if there's corruption, poor people gets poorer and sometimes poverty pushes them to do things that are against the law.

This is the face of a strong republic.