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AUTHOR'S NOTE This paper is the nucleus of a larger work which is in process of writing. Incomplete as it is, this is being released for two reasons. One is that, as is, the paper can stand on its own and contains enough materials to provide the basis for a working dialogue with, and among, groups and individuals, on a subject of primary importance. The other is to influence the ongoing Constitutional Commission towards a new charter that would unleash three processes: the process of de-colonization; the process of industrialization; and the process of economic democratization. I believe that only when these three processes are set in motion can Philippine society begin to wage serious war against mass poverty and reconstruct itself on a higher foundation. The central purpose of this paper is to focus national attention to the problem of mass poverty and the need for a comprehensive approach to it through a new economic order that would confront and eliminate its roots and structural causes. Unless that problem is overcome, there can be no normalcy, and everything is peripheral. I will appreciate receiving the critical comments and constructive suggestions of the reader, particularly concerning the proposals in Part Two, for possible incorporation in a final and larger version of this work. + + + (Excerpts) Part One I. The Objective And Historical Setting Of The Poverty Problem Introductory and Preliminary Remarks. Framing a new constitution provides a people with the historic and momentous opportunity to reorganize their society on a new and higher basis for a better life. The reorganization of Philippine society is now a compelling need. We have been a republic for the last forty years, and as a republic we have lived under two constitutions. But the condition of our people and the state of the nation, far from progressing, have progressively deteriorated, particularly over the last twenty years. A decade ago, estimates were that 40% of our people lived below the poverty line. Today, estimates run as high as 85%. Seven out of ten Filipinos are under-nourished. Time was when undernourishment in Asia was synonymous with the impoverished and starving millions of China and India. Today, that term seems to have been reserved mainly for the Filipino. No one talks of the undernourished Chinese, the undernourished Indian or even the undernourished Indonesian. In this "only Christian nation in Asia," mass poverty has forced children to prostitution in an alarming scale and the country is now a major world center for that particular perversion. (more inside)
