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Solidarity Philippines decries paltry social services budget


MANILA, Philippines — Church group Solidarity Philippines on Tuesday expressed concern that for every peso the government would spend, 42 centavos goes to external liabilities and only 25 centavos for social services for the almost 90 million Filipinos under the 2009 national budget. This is because only P408.5 billion was allotted for social services, a despicable 25 percent of the entire P1.6 trillion financial plan for 2009, the group said. "For every peso our country has in 2009, a mere 25 centavos would altogether go to education, culture, labor development, health, social security, welfare, employment, housing, community development, land distribution, other social services, and subsidy to Local Government Units," Solidarity Philippines said in a statement. Total allocation for debt servicing funds have shamefully and steadily increased from P614 billion in 2007 to P636 billion in 2008. For 2009, it was pegged at P682.5 billion. The group said "no amount of monitoring, accounting, and fiscalizing is needed further regarding this matter. We cannot fight and win the war against poverty if we continue to spread the evil of budgetary misprioritization, misallocation, and corruption; if we continue to enslave and blind our nation with such measly social services budget; if we oppress Filipinos with such onerous and diabolical debt-servicing; if we continue to rant “ramdam ang kaunlaran" under an executive leadership whose financial priorities are such a blatant disservice to our country." “In the Philippines, we are experiencing, undergoing first-hand the tremors the detonation instigated by the global financial crisis. Its full barrage is still to come according to local analysts – both political and economic. Some politicians and economists – with some national financial planners have prodded ordinary Filipinos to’brace for the storm,’ that is, the storm that the world capitalist and profit-driven economy has unleashed upon humanity. “And for 2009, we are yet to live through a yet more disturbing type of storm whose exorbitant fury will reverberate for the entire year and even to the 2010 elections," the group said. - D’Jay Lazaro, GMANews.TV
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