NEWS RELEASE
16 August 2011
Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Luz Ilagan dismissed today attempts by Charter Change proponents to paint a rosy post Cha-cha scenario.
“Let us not be fooled by Cha-cha’s promise of investments. Our experience shows that foreign direct investments have not resulted to employment, poverty alleviation and economic growth.”
The Gabriela soon notes that while direct investments grew by an average of 7.8% from 2004 to 2009 this increase in investments did not translate to economic growth nor did this trickle down to the majority of our population.
On this very same period, we can see a consistent increase in poverty incidence. A World Bank report released early this year reveals how poverty incidence rose from 24.9 percent of the population in 2003 to 26.4 percent in 2006, up further to 26.5 percent in 2009. 27.6 million Filipinos survive on less than P41 per day.
Ilagan further said, “The unemployment rate averaged 11% in the period 2005-2010, according to IBON’s estimates. A convenient and deceptive redefinition of official unemployment statistics in 2005 even sugarcoats this figure. In 2010 there were 4.4 million unemployed and 6.2 million underemployed.”
“It would be foolish to think that amending the economic provisions of our Constitution to bring in more foreign investors would be a panacea to our ailing economy. Instead, let us pour our efforts towards strengthening support for agriculture and building local industries.”#
