| 8 September 2010 |
| Church leaders blame government for RP's shortages |
MANILA -- The government's weak policy to fight poverty should be blamed why more people are suffering from hunger, ranking leaders of the Catholic bishops' leadership said.
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Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said fighting poverty is everybody's duty but the huge responsibility goes out to government leaders.
"The prevailing poverty and hunger in the country is the responsibility of everyone. However, this is the prime responsibility of government leaders who hold the key to the country's coffers," he said.
Lagdameo said it's high time for the people to move and figure out where their taxes go—money which should be used supposedly to solve hunger.
Masbate Bishop Joel Baylon, for his part, also pointed his finger on the government for its failure to at least minimize the problem on corruption.
"Not unless endemic corruption (in the government) is curbed, Filipinos will remain poor," said Baylon whose pastoral jurisdiction is one the country's poorest provinces.
Some 3.3 million families experienced not having anything to eat in the last three months as starvation continued to plague Filipino households, according to the latest Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey released Monday.
The survey, conducted from September 24-27, showed that 18.4 percent or 3.3 million families experienced hunger in the past three months. The figure is six points above the ten-year average of 12.3 percent and is the highest in the four quarters after the record-high 21.5 percent in September 2007.
The SWS said it was due to an increase in moderate hunger—referring to those who had nothing to eat at least "once" or "a few times" in the last three months — which outweighed a drop in severe hunger (going hungry "often" or "always"). (Roy Lagarde) cbcpnews
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