CHIZ SAYS MANY FILIPINOS STILL LEFT OUT OF THE GDP GROWTH

State propaganda may have been extolling the country 's soaring GDP as "ramdam na ramdam ng taongbayan" but widespread hunger and poverty prove that effects of economic growth spurts have yet to trickle down, Sen. Chiz Escudero said today.

"This is not to belittle the GDP growth last year but there seems to be a disconnect between impressive economic numbers and depressing realities on the ground", Escudero said.

"Many of our people are left behind in this economic growth or are entirely left out of it", he said. "Kung tatanungin natin sila kung ramdam na ramdam ba nila ang pag-unlad, marami marahil ang isasagot ay ganito: 'Ramdam na ramdam namin ang kahirapan, ramdam na ramdam namin ang gutom. Yes, they feel something, and that is gut-wrenching poverty", Escudero said.

Growth, he said, should be translated into more jobs, more food, and more houses for the people but official government data itself showed the large unmet needs in these.

"The latest hunger incidence survey showed that 15 million Filipinos are experiencing bouts of involuntary hunger" he said. "A large section of the nation is on a forced diet."

He said 8.75 million Filipinos are unemployed or underemployed. "When one in very four in the labor force is jobless or is just working occasionally, then what we have is a job-less growth", he said.

Lack of domestic jobs, he said, "has fueled the great Filipino Diaspora, and robust money remittances of these economic refugees have kept the economy afloat, triggered consumption spending which in turn stimulated the economy but which the administration now unabashedly claims credit for".

He said growth might be concentrated on certain areas or social strata only. "If we have pockets of prosperity amid large cavities of poverty then this is growth without equity."

"When one million families need a roof over their heads, when 27 million of our countrymen cannot buy essential drugs, when five million do not have access to regular clean drinking water, or when three in 10 Grade 1 students won't be able to finish high school, then what we have is growth we can only read in the papers but one that we can't personally feel," the senator said.