Press Release
December 13, 2007

Filipino optimism for 2008 not reason
for gov't to pat its back -- Loren

Senator Loren Legarda said yesterday that the upbeat outlook of Filipinos on the coming year based on a survey conducted by Pulse Asia is a testament on the Filipino's resilience and optimistic nature.

"We try to make the most out of life. We are a hardy people. But this optimism is not in any way a manifestation that the lot of the Filipino is improving," Legarda said.

"We are not likened to the bamboo, which sways with the wind so as not to be uprooted, for nothing. We also seem live by the saying 'kapag maikli ang kumot, matutong mamaluktot (if the blanket is short, learn to curl up under it)."

Legarda said that optimism will be further tested when the nation braces up for continuing increases in the prices of basic commodities and fuel.

She noted reports that the lowly pandesal bread will soon be sold at P2.50 a piece, that the Manila Electric Company will increase power charges by six centavos per kilowatt hour, and that Manila Water Co. will also raise its water rates next year.

Legarda said only the barometer of ever-increasing hardship being faced by Filipinos is changing, saying it was the price of the fish galungong in the post-Marcos years and now the price of pandesal.

Pandesal used to sell at P1 per piece.

The senator said that Filipinos will also need a lot of patience in the light of the expected further reduction in the provision of social services to them by the government.

Legarda said that this is so because the proposed 2008 national budget is, like past budgets, is saddled by huge debt servicing allocations, leaving little money for actual delivery of services to the people.

On top of this, government's announced intention to balance the 2008 budget may once again cause it to underspend for health, education, the environment and poverty reduction.

She cited as example the some P33 billion underspending employed by the government in the first three quarters of 2007 when tax collections and revenues fell short of their targets.

Pulse Asia reported that 84 percent of Filipinos are looking forward to 2008 "with hope."

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