Full recovery of coco levy funds can narrow rich-poor divide

Philippine Daily Inquirer’s March 12 editorial (“Giving”) should draw the interest of all Filipinos—especially our few really well-to-do—and raise their concern. As a nation, we just cannot have real growth and stability if we keep closing our eyes to the reality that the gap between our very few really rich and our very many poor is said to be “the widest in Asia.”

Based on the findings of Inquirer columnist Cielito Habito, the editorial asserts that the increase in the wealth of our 40 richest families accounted for 76 percent of the growth of our gross national product (GDP). This increase in the wealth of our wealthiest 40 families is really too high when compared to Thailand’s wealthiest (33.7 percent); and very much higher than that of Malaysia’s (5.6 percent) and Japan’s (2.8 percent). In his column in the same Inquirer issue, Habito made a correction saying that what he really meant was that the growth in aggregate worth of our 40 richest families in 2011 “was equivalent (in value) to 76.5 percent of the growth in our total GDP at the time.”

The crucial point, however, is what Habito himself suggests: Wealth distribution in the country is much more skewed against the poor than wealth distribution in our neighboring countries, and that the oligarchs have too much control of the country’s resources.

Indeed so much more has to be done. It is time for all government agencies under President Aquino’s leadership to undertake effective measures toward lessening the widening gap between our rich and poor.

For instance, perhaps Congress should at this time adapt a reasonable profit-sharing scheme so our employees and workers could have a reasonable share in the profits of their employers (we tried to push  this during the Eighth Congress).

Companies take pride in their so-called corporate social responsibility, but their CSR has yet to make an impact on the lives of the marginalized.  The 13th-month pay is too small. The conditional cash transfer program of the government, with its big budgetary allocation, is only a stop-gap measure. Besides, being basically a dole, it promotes dependency.

All the above makes the full recovery and meaningful use of the coconut levy funds even more significant. The levy, unilaterally exacted from the marginalized coco farmers during the Marcos years, can surely have an impact on our rich-poor gap problem if used cautiously. Recall that the National Anti-Poverty Commission has confirmed that the farmers and their dependents who constitute one-fifth of our people are the “poorest of the poor and the most socially insecure sector of society.” Moreover, uplifting the lives of coco farmers in 21,000 coconut barangays (villages) is a matter of justice.

—OSCAR “KA OCA” SANTOS,

Coconut Industry Reform (COIR) Movement Inc.,

[email protected]