PH fails in MDG targets

By Tony Lopez
July 16, 2014 at 12:01am

Were the billions of pesos from the
Priority Development Assistance Fund and
the Disbursement Acceleration Program put to
good use and resulted in better well-being for
Filipinos?
No. The Philippines has just failed
to meet six of the eight major targets of the
Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The
seven are actually the core or substance of
MDG. A United Nations project, MDG
intended to cut poverty by half and improve
the human condition globally, in 25 years,
from 1990 to 2015. For the rest of the world,
MDG has been a success story.
MDG has been a massive failure for
the Philippines, thanks to massive
incompetence and even more massive
corruption.
PDAF amounted to P25 billion
annually or P100 billion after four years of the
BS Aquino administration while DAP
exceeded P149 billion before both were
outlawed and declared unconstitutional by the
Supreme Court. On both counts, the Supreme
Court ruling was unanimous and irreversible.
While the world has surged
dramatically in terms of saving lives and
improving the condition of billions, the
Philippines has missed nearly all of the major
targets of the MDGs.
This is the largest failure of
governance by any major country, with a
population of 50 million to 100 million,
anywhere in the world.
This failure is a tragic irony. As a
country, the Philippines is the 12th largest in
the world, with a population of 100 million.
As a consumer market, the Philippines is also
the 12th largest.
The Philippines is middle class.
Filipinos have a per capita income of $3,323,
more than double or up 147 percent from what
it was ten years ago $1,346 in 2004. The
savings rate is high, 29.4 percent of GDP, or
4.1 trillion savings out of P14 trillion output
of goods and services annually.
Foreign reserves are more than $80
billion, equivalent to 15 months of imports,
and enough to pay all of the countrys $58.5
billion foreign debts with $21.5 billion to
spare.
Filipinos are English-speaking,
highly literate, creative and productive.
So where did the Philippines fail?
Governance. In 25 years, a
succession of Philippine presidents has either
been incompetent or corrupt, or worse both
incompetent and corrupt. Under such








leadership, no country, no matter how rich in
resources and no matter how well endowed
intellectually and materially, its people, can
rise to greatness.
The Philippines cannot lick its
nagging poverty, cannot solve the hunger of
its people, cannot send all its elementary-age
children to school, cannot make all the same
kids finish even elementary school, cannot
save the 3,225 babies below five who die each
year, nor the 2,100 mothers who die each year
while giving birth. No mother should die
while giving birth. And no child below five
should die. This is genocide.
The government has also failed to
eradicate malaria and tuberculosis totally.
Here is the Philippines
performance on the MDG:
Goal 1: Halve extreme poverty
between 1990 and 2015. Failed.
The proportion of the population
earning $1 or below in 1990 was 34.4 percent.
The target is 17.2 percent by 2015. Today,
poverty incidence is at 25.2 percent (2012
data). It is not likely that in just one year, or
by 2015, poverty incidence will collapse to
17.2 percent by lifting 9.2 percent of the
population (or 9.2 million Filipinos) out of
poverty. It takes seven years of 7 percent per
year consistent GDP growth to do that.
Goal 2: Ensure universal primary
education. All kids must be able to finish
primary school. Failed.
To meet this goal, 1. there must be
100 percent net enrollment ratio in primary
education, 2. 100 percent of pupils who start
Grade 1 must finish Grade 6, 3. 100 percent of
kids must finish primary school, 4. Filipinos
15 to 24 years old must be 100 percent
literate. 5. For every one male literate, there
must be one female literate.
The achievements so far: 1. 95.2
percent, up from 84.6 percent in 1990; 2. 75.3
percent, up from 69.7 percent; 3. 73.7 percent,
up from 64.2 percent; and 4. Literacy, 97.8
percent, up slightly from 96.6 percent; and 5.
The one-to-one literacy ratio of female to
male 15 to 24 years was achieved.
Goal 3: Promote gender equality
and empower women. Failed.
Ratio of girls to boys in primary
education must be 1 by 2015. It is only 0.9.
Ratio of girls to boys in secondary
participation rate must be 1.0. It is only 1.2,
the same as in 1990.
Ratio of girls to boys in tertiary
education must be 1.0. It is only 1.2, slightly
better than the 1.3 in 1990.








Ratio of women in salaried non-
agricultural work must be 50 percent. It is
only 41.2 percentup slightly from 40.1
percent in 1990.
Half (50 percent) of members of
Congress must be women. Only 26 percent of
Congress members are women, half the target.
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality.
Failed.
Under-five (years old) mortality at
birth must be 27, down from 80 in 1990. It is
only 31 deaths per thousand.
Infant mortality rate must be 19 by
2015. It is only 23, though this number is a
sharp improvement from 57 in 1990.
All (100 percent) one-year-olds
must be immunized from measles. It is only
68.7 percenteven lower than the 77.9
percent in 1990.
Goal 5: Reduce by three quarters,
between 1990 and 2015, number of mothers
dying while giving birth. Failed.
Maternal mortality was 209 in 1990.
It should be just 52 per 100,000 live births.
The actual performance: 221 worse than
209 in 1990. All pregnant mothers must be
attended to by skilled personnel while giving
birth. The ratio in 1990: 58.8 percent. The
ratio in 2011: 74.9, below target of 100
percent.
Contraceptive prevalence must be
100 percent. It was 58.8 percent in 1990. It is
only 55.1 percent today, worse than it was 25
years ago.
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria
and other diseases. Failed on tb. Passing on
malaria.
The Philippines achieved or almost
achieved targets on malaria control.
But it failed on tuberculosis. No one
should have tb. About 246 of every 1,000 had
tb in 1990. The ratio today: 273.1, a
worsening.
The number of deaths from tb ratio
though is decliningfrom 39.1 in 1990 to
26.3 today. The target is zero.
Goal 7: Ensure environmental
sustainability by integrating the principles of
sustainable development into country policies
and programs to reverse the loss of
environmental resources. Failed. The
Philippines is an everyday disaster.
PH passed Goal 8: Develop a global
partnership for development.

Reference:
http://manilastandardtoday.com/2014/07/16/p
h-fails-in-mdg-targets/