A.

SDG#_1_

B. Chosen Contested Issue in the Philippine Context:

The Unending Poverty in our country

C. Why is it a contested issue? Explain:

Because a lot of Filipino are still suffering from poverty up until now that needs to be

argued over and over again. In order to come up with a concrete plan and action about

it and make each of our lives a better one.

D. Your stance:

To prove that our government still did not provide a sustainable solution to our problem

against poverty and we need to be aware of it and call out for an action.

UNENDING POVERTY IN THE PHILIPPINES

(Word Count: 1348 words)

Introduction

For the past years our country has been experiencing poverty due to various

reasons, making the Filipinos suffer. According to Asian Development bank (2009), the

causes of poverty in the Philippines is due to the low to moderate economic growth,

exposure to risks such as economic crisis, conflicts, natural disasters, environmental

poverty and etc. which makes our country left behind from other countries. Moreover,

according to Aldaba, F. (2009) the extent of families living beneath the authority

destitution line has declined gradually and unevenly and the financial development has

gone through win and fail cycles limitedly affect poor people. It is why when the 17

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sustainable development goals were introduced in the United Nations General

Assembly in 2015, our country is one of those who adopted it immediately in order to

put an end to the different problems we are experiencing specifically, poverty. This

created a huge expectation from the Filipinos since this may create a big impact for their

future and make their lives better because based from Serrano, I. (2016) our country

has joined to pledged with the UN community to achieve ending poverty no matter what

by the year 2030. Since the aim of the Sustainable Development Goals is to achieve a

better and sustainable future for all, that means providing better solutions and

developments to the problems we have in order to resolve it. But for me, poverty is

still a contested issue in our country since our government still did not maintain a

sustainable progress or solution even after adopting the SDG’s for the past years.

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The first reason is because the Philippine Government just concluded without

hesitation as to how the decreasing rate of poverty in our country will continue by the

year 2021. Based from Carlos, R.A.G. (2019) the Philippines has ‘assumed’ to decrease

poverty at 18.7% by the year 2021 because Panelo said in his statement, "We consider

this projection as consistent with the goal of our Philippine Development Plan crafted in

2017 where our economic managers targeted to reduce poverty incidence to 14 percent

at the end of the term of President Duterte in 2022, that is equivalent to about six million

people that are to be lifted out of poverty”. This statement was powerful back then since

they have already concluded it based from the little progress we are making for the past

4 years. Because according to De Vera, B.O. (2019) the decreasing rate of poverty by

the year 2016 is about 24.5%, while 2017 is about 23.1%, then in 2018 it is about

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21.9%, then they expected that in 2019 it is about 20.8% and lastly they have also

assumed that it will decrease at 19.8% by the year 2020. But when pandemic happened

it all went wrong since what they all assumed did not meet their expectations and there

was no prepared plan for it. It is why based from Teo, D. (2020) it has resulted to 7.3

million Filipinos losing their jobs that is equivalent to a rate of 17.7% by the year 2020

that may lead in increasing again the poverty rate in our country by the year 2021.

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To compare with the progress we had before when the Sustainable Development

Goals was still not proposed yet, there was just a little difference between the two since

they were just about the same in terms of its decreasing rate progress. According to

Llorito, D. (2018) the Philippine has a program introduced back then called “Pantawid

Pamilya Pilipino Program or 4P’s” it was the solution made by our government, which is

a cash transfer program for the Filipino families that belongs to the group of people

experiencing poverty. There is about a 5% consistent decreasing rate after

implementing it starting from the year 2006 – 2015 due to the expansion of agricultural

jobs, government transfers and etc. which means there was no gap or inconsistency

that happened within the program we originally implemented throughout the succeeding

years. While when the sustainable development goals were adopted by us, there was

also a 5% decreasing rate happening since the rate was from 24.5% to 19.8% in the

year 2016 – 2020 as they assumed it to be. They are just different in a way that there

was a global pandemic that happened during the year 2020 that is why a gap was

evident during the on-going developments. But we can say that the sustainable

development goals have a little difference from the 4P’s when it comes to how fast was

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the progress after implementing it since we achieved the decreasing rate of poverty of

5% in a span of 4 years of SDG compared to the 9 years of 4P’s.

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Nevertheless, the last reason is because they did not fulfill what they promised

and that is to eliminate poverty in our country no matter what even before 2030 and

made it even worse. Based from De Vera, B.O. (2020) due to Covid-19 pandemic, there

will be about 2.7 million more Filipinos who will experience poverty since according to

The World Bank’s Philippine Economic our GDP will decrease for about 8.1% that was

even worse than the 7% in the year 1984. Which means a lot of Filipinos will eventually

suffer until the next years because as also said by Rivas, R. (2021) there has been an

ongoing increasing rate of poverty specifically to unemployment rate with about 7% to

9% which will remain until 2022 due the negligence of our government to create of an

effective plan and action to solve our problem. According to Abad, M. (2021) our

government has created an emergency subsidy program or what have called Bayanihan

to Heal As One Act wherein there be will be an amount of P5,000 to P8,000 cash aid

that will be distributed as a help for the Filipinos in the year 2020. Which has failed since

many Filipino did not receive its secondary distribution due to the failed system of the

DSWD up until now. Moreover, they have also created another cash aid program in

2021 wherein an amount of P1,000 to P4,000 in each family will be distributed but it will

be decided if it is in kind or cash. Which still led Filipino to look for a way on how they

will be able to survive in a day despite the danger of getting infected with the virus

because the government’s help is not enough to last long for a family to overcome

poverty.

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Conclusion

Therefore, with the evidences shown, it is proven that our government has not

maintained to make an effective solution for our problem in experiencing poverty since

they have relied too much on the little progress we had for the first 4 years after the

adaptation of the SDG. For a reason that the rate of poverty in the Philippines has

increase more this year even though the government created actions since according to

Rivas, R. (2020) Duterte’s government has planned to create infrastructure projects

spark economic activity, but its results was not efficient enough to solve and support the

needs of the Filipinos. It is why this an unending problem in our country that will always

be a contested issue if our government won’t improve and change the ways on how

they will conduct solutions for our country. Also since, according to Llorito, D. (2018) as

said by Mara K. Warwick, through having a concrete economic fundamentals, breaking

the cycle of unequal investment in human capital, and setting out open doors for more

and better opportunities for the Filipinos is how our country will be able to overcome

experiencing poverty. Then based from Pettinger, T. (2019) it is may also be through

having enough budget to support the educational system or trainings that may enable

the Filipinos to be one of the higher-skilled workforce in the future. Though it is not just

the plans and actions that are not effective enough, but also because on how a

government is handling it that results to either a successful future for its people or not.