MANILA, Philippines – Senator Grace Poe is still resisting calls for her to run for higher office in 2016.
“Ganoon pa rin ang sagot ko (My answer remains the same). I have no plans to seek higher office,” Poe said in a text message when asked to comment to reports that she could be a strong contender in 2016.
Poe topped the senatorial race when she first ran for the Senate in 2013. Her name has been floated as possible contender in 2016 when she ranked second in some surveys for president, next to Vice President Jejomar Binay, who has been leading in various polls.
Her mention of “altanghap,” a campaign slogan associated with her late father Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ), in her latest speech in the Senate, has revived speculations that she was positioning for presidency. “Altanghap” is “almusal, tanghalian, at hapunan (breakfast, lunch, and dinner).”
Senator Grace Poe FILE PHOTO
But Poe quickly dismissed that her mention of her father’s slogan has signalled her entry into the presidential race.
“Ano ba, syempre lahat tayo may pinanggagalingan. Ang pinanggagalingan ko yung sa tatay ko, kasi nakita naman nya kung gaano kahirap pag walang suporta ang gobyerno,” she told reporters.
The senator noted that she already used the slogan in 2013 and she was just fulfilling her promise now to poor Filipinos.
“Pangako ko yun, tinutupad ko lang yung pangako ko na yun ang tinutulak,” she pointed out.
Asked again if she would consider running for president, Poe said: “No plans at all.”
When Poe delivered a privilege speech on hunger, Clarita Carlos, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said Poe did not say anything new but gave a graphic description of the state of hunger and poverty in the country.
Asked if she thought the senator might be positioning herself as an alternative candidate for the presidency, Carlos said: “Anybody can run for President, and we are searching for that person.
“It is difficult to second-guess the motives of people. One may claim that she is positioning herself for a national position but I do not want to second-guess her.”
In her speech, Poe underscored the suffering of many people amid excesses of the few and that many Filipinos continue to want and suffer.
“This is a country where skinny street kids share one bowl of instant noodles under the foot of neon ads selling liposuction for the obese. This is a country where there is a fried or roasted chicken stand in every corner but the bestseller in the slums does not come in buckets but out of garbage cans—the pagpag double-fried chicken,” she said.
Garbage food
Pagpag is known as garbage food, often leftover chicken, which the poor get from garbage bins of fast-food outlets and then washed and refried for them to eat or sell.
If government data would be used as basis, the senator said few Filipinos should grow hungry.
For instance, the Philippines has a 100-percent self-sufficiency rate in crops like coconuts, sweet potatoes, bananas, sugar, cabbage and eggplant; in fish such as tilapia, milkfish, round scad and tuna; and in poultry like chicken and duck eggs.
The country is also nearly self-sufficient in rice and corn, she noted.
But despite this abundance, many do not have the money to buy sufficient food.
“Today, a minimum wage worker in Cebu City must work 5 1/2 hours to buy a kilo of beef. If a plantation worker in Negros wants to treat his family to tinolang manok, he will have to work a half day to buy 1 kilo of chicken,” she said.
Even vegetables are beyond the reach of many workers.
Sleep to ease hunger
As a result, many Filipinos have turned to sleep to assuage their hunger or to use soy sauce, bagoong (shrimp paste), tomato, salt and coffee to flavor their meager meals, Poe said.
Poe stressed the importance of giving children sufficient food. “But as in any social problem, hunger, like war, punishes the children most.”
Stunted kids
Without sufficient nutrition, children’s motor development slows down and their cognitive skills become stunted. Those who weigh less score low in tests and learn less than their classmates, the senator said.
Children who frequently miss meals are also likely to miss classes, she added.
It’s the country’s future that is being jeopardized, she said.
“And this has a long-term negative impact on the development of our human capital. We cannot build the foundation of our future on emaciated bodies who are no longer in school. No nation on Earth can,” she said.
Budget nutrient-deficient
Poe said the P2.6-trillion national budget for 2015 was “child-nutrient deficient.”
She said the P4.6 billion under the Department of Education (DepEd) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), allocated for serving occasional meals to severely wasted children and a supplementary feeding program for children in daycare, was grossly insufficient.
The budget per meal under the DSWD program is P13.60 while that under the DepEd is P16 per child.
This is below the P50 per meal allocated for inmates of the national penitentiary, Poe pointed out.
“Surely, we can raise the meal budget for our kids to national penitentiary standards,” she said.
Scrap frivolous programs
“Let us then create budget space for programs that will fill the empty stomachs of our young. I will not enumerate them, but the proposed budget is littered with frivolous programs we can do without.”
She sought the passage of her school-feeding program bill.
Poe said it was time to be sincere in improving agriculture, especially since the Philippine population continues to grow, with 200 babies born every hour.
She noted that only 55 percent of potentially irrigable areas, or 1.67 of 3 million, are serviced by irrigation.
But for 2015, the “measly” target is to bring irrigation to just 26,155 hectares for the first time.
“At this pace, it will take us half a century to develop our full irrigation potential,” she said.
She said the P88.8 billion for agriculture for 2015 must be used properly. “We should ensure that most of the funds will go to farmers, in time, in full, for the right project, at the right place, and the right price.” With a report from Philippine Daily Inquirer
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