Good governance for meaningful growth

This refers to the editorial cartoon (by Gilbert Daroy) in the Inquirer issue of June 19, which showed “global population” and “limited resources.” Good governance should have been depicted as well, our country being in dire need of it to achieve meaningful economic growth.

Taxpayers’ money spent for useless, senseless huge pork barrel projects can be used more meaningfully to make  idle lands in the countryside productive and lure Filipinos back to the provinces, and to employ them and allow them to live in a dignified way. Indeed, the earth has sufficient natural resources to feed all of mankind but not enough to satisfy every man’s greed.

Our big population is a boon to our nation as millions of overseas Filipino workers sacrifice working abroad just so they can provide for their families back home.  They keep the Philippine economy afloat (“OFW remittances up by 6% to $2B in April,” Inquirer.net, 6/17/13). As reported, the money sent home by the OFWs last April reached $2 billion amid the sustained demand for high-skilled workers in other countries.

“The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)… reported that personal remittances, which support the domestic spending that has fueled the country’s economic rise, rose 7 percent year-on-year. This brought the year-to-date total to $7.7 billion, higher by 6.4 percent over the same four-month period last year.”

The article further reported that “OFW remittances are the largest source of foreign exchange income for the country. The government estimates that 10 million Filipinos have jobs overseas and send money to their families on a regular basis.

“The Philippines is the fourth-largest recipient of remittances from overseas workers in the world, trailing India, China and Mexico.”

We appreciate the sacrifice of OFWs who come from “meaningful population growth” that makes possible “meaningful economic prosperity.”

—CHING D. AUNARIO,

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