Viewpoint
Tricycle perspective
By Juan Mercado
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:18:00 08/07/2008
CALBAYOG, Philippines--"U5MR" draws a blank from most people, including many who live and work in this Samar city.
That includes Doring. This scrawny tricycle driver pedals me to the Internet cafe to meet an Inquirer deadline. He charges three measly bucks for one way. Former Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos' line--"May 200 ka diyan, sec"--is light years away for Doring.
"U5MR" is scientists' shorthand. This indicator pegs the probability of a kid dying, between birth and his fifth birthday, expressed per 1,000 births. It is the most sensitive gauge of child health and well-being, the UN's "State of the World's Children 2008" says.
But that rings no bell for Doring. "Rain or shine, sick or well, I drive this tricycle to support my family," he says. He prays his five kids will live. A neighbor's three-year-old baby girl died from gastroenteritis. Poor sanitation and undernutrition in Calbayog take a heavy toll on children.
Doring's prayer is a mute expression of something he never heard of either: the Millennium Development Goals. The Philippines and 188 countries signed in 2000 a pledge to meet eight MDGs. No. 4 target: To whittle down by two-thirds deaths of children both at birth and those under five, come 2015. By then, Doring, who is 42 but looks 52, would only be 49.
We may yet beat the 2015 deadline. Under-five deaths here were a gross 80 in 1990, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board. This dropped to 31 in 2006. Infant mortality rates have been cut from 57 to 23. But immunization has lagged badly.
Overall averages, however, can paper over gaps between the "haves" like Batangas and the "have nots" like Samar. Skewed life expectancies reflect this fissure.
People in Samar live, on average, 61 years. That's better than Tawi-Tawi's 51. But this is a gut-wrenching 11 years shorter than the life spans of Cebuanos and Pampangeños--and the Singaporeans' 78.
Western Samar is No. 5. among the 10 provinces with truncated life expectancies. The others are Antique, Kalinga, Apayao, Eastern Samar, Basilan, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Maguindanao and Tawi-Tawi.
"Differences in homes, clothing or even menus are galling enough," the late National Scientist Dioscoro Umali noted. "But denial of life itself and premature graves are an obscene injustice. It vests the cries for justice ... with the pent-up force of deep anger. We will reap the whirlwind if we persist in sowing the wind this way."
Samar is rich in natural resources. Part of the largest old-growth forests are here. It has land, water, biodiversity, etc. But vicious politics has crimped development and stoked insurgency.
It also embedded poverty. The result is lack of clean water, shoddy health care, etc. The poorest 10 percent, like Doring, consume four centavos out of every available peso here. The richest burn up 33 centavos.
Samar has boosted high school graduate ratios. But Bohol's primary and enrolment rate of 89 percent outstrips its 80. Samar has also cut poverty incidence from 55 to 46 percent, which is similar to Negros Oriental's. But more needs to be done.
"Chances of children surviving beyond their fifth birthday differs significantly," the latest Asia-Pacific MDG study reports. The odds hinge on "which part of a country they are born and to what type of household."
"Children least likely to survive are those in the poorest households," says this joint study by the Asian Development Bank and the UN. "The poorest 20 percent of households typically account for considerably more than 20 percent of a country's child deaths." U5MR is "typically far higher in rural than urban areas, often by over 50 percent." And these rural-urban gaps have persisted.
Translate that into the Philippine setting. Children in poorer cities, like Calbayog, are twice as likely to be underweight as those in metropolitan areas like Makati. The provincial yardsticks also hold: 12 out of every 100 kids in Samar are underweight compared to Palawan's 5.
To get more bang for the buck, spend for the basic human needs of poorest, the 1972 Stockholm Conference urged. Thus, delegates crafted an innovative "20-20 Pact."
The Philippine response to the "20:20 Initiative's" humane vision is the "20 Percent Development Fund" stitched into the Local Government Code. Section 287 of the code commits the government to earmark 20 centavos out of every tax peso for needs of the most marginalized: nutrition, health care, medicine, potable water and sanitation, education. Livelihood projects are to be supported.
But politicians have crassly manipulated this vital safety net into a mini-pork barrel. Lapu-Lapu City's Association of Barangay Councils, for example, frittered away P2.25 million, mostly in allowances for members. Aloguinsan town splurged P540,000 for "a live concert and a dance-break." Dapitan disbursed half a million pesos for its "executive band."
Significantly, small ($50) livelihood loans for poor women won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. "Micro-credit is a means ... whereby large population groups find ways to break out of poverty," the Nobel citation said.
That's exactly how the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development helped half-a-million poor Filipinas and families. Thus, it got the 2008 Magsaysay Award for Public Service.
"Prioritize the use of (the 20 percent) development fund for improvement in delivery of basic social and health services," President Macapagal-Arroyo urged the League of Provinces. This would lower "U5MR" even if Doring can't define it.
(E-mail: juanlmercado@gmail.com)
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