Citing a study by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP), or Campaign for Humane Living, said P3 trillion of the country’s gross domestic product went to corporate income while only P2.4 trillion went to family income.
“Despite more than a decade of growth, millions of Filipinos remain poor while prices of goods and services are getting more inaccessible,” said KAMP lead convenor Ana Maria Nemenzo.
“How can this growth become equitable when the [biggest] part of it went to the private sector, when the combined income of the top 40 Filipino billionaires is more than the combined income of the bottom 30 percent of the population?” Nemenzo said.
She said the combined net worth of the top 40 billionaires amounted to P2 trillion, “almost equivalent to the proposed 2013 national budget,” while select poor families received only P1,400 a month from the government’s conditional cash-transfer program.
“Despite the 6-percent [economic] growth, half of the labor force is [composed of] self-employed and unpaid workers while more than a third works as contractual,” KAMP said.