REACHING THE POOR

The Bohol Tribune

In This Our Journey

A column by: NESTOR MANIEBO PESTELOS

For both the Catholic clergy and the Government, Pope Francis during his recent visit stressed the need to be mindful of those in the peripheries, meaning those who are “poor, marginalized and victims of injustice.” He admonished political leaders to reject corruption because it robs the poor of much-needed resources. For the religious leaders, on the other hand, he advised them to be ambassadors for Christ by living in poverty for “only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters.”

Pres. Aquino, in an interview, said the Pope’s repeated plea to help millions of poor Filipinos was not meant for him since his administration had already pulled at least two and a half million Filipinos out of poverty due to its poverty reduction projects in education, livelihood and employment since 2010 when he assumed office. What he did not mention was that poverty incidence among households and the population has virtually remained the same.

For his part, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle in thanking the Pope for the visit cited specific groups who are in the peripheries: “I say thank you very much on behalf of the street children, the orphans, the widows, the homeless, the informal settlers, the laborers, the farmers, the fisherfolk, the sick, the abandoned elderly, the families of missing persons, the victims of discrimination, violence, abuse, exploitation, human trafficking, the Filipino migrant workers and their families, the survivors of natural calamities and armed conflicts, the non-Christian Catholics, the followers of non-Christian religions, the promoters of peace, especially in Mindanao, and  creation that groans.”

Indeed one can be isolated and condemned to be in the peripheries by virtue of one’s geographic location, political and religious affiliations, gender orientation, minority advocacies and class distinctions.  Enlightened and democratic governance, whether by the State, Church and civil society organizations are supposed to reach the unreached in the peripheries. Otherwise, pro-poor development will occur only as exhortations in speeches and grand pronouncements from leaders of various persuasions.

In the light of the Pope’s message, delivered with passion, sincerity and commitment, it is best to assess if we have really reflected enough of the pro-poor focus in the respective plans, programs and projects of each key institution in our province. Based on our experience, we have had efforts to reach more of the disadvantaged and the marginalized, but they tend to be hindered by lack of enough resources to produce a reliable and comprehensive database, to indicate where the poor households are or where the specific poverty groups live and work, their number, their particular level of deprivation and what package of services reaches them, their quality and quantity and at what particular time frame to ensure maximum effectiveness.

Due to the high costs required in facilitating service delivery to far-flung barangays, programs for the traditionally unreached sectors of the population cannot go beyond several kilometers from the town centers. In some cases, those in remote communities are expected to go down to centers quite a distance from their homes to be able to avail of much-needed services from either the government or the private sector. Indeed there is a need to review the network of extension workers from various sectors and determine their actual outreach to specific households.

In the light of scarcity of resources, it is important that accurate mapping of outreach networks of agencies and institutions be undertaken to pinpoint areas of improvement in the whole business of reaching the poor in their various locations or in the specific conditions of their access to services, information and actual development interventions. It will take strong collaboration among agencies and institutions to produce such vital database to ensure effective pro-poor targeting.

Pope Francis, on the other hand, advised the clergy to live in poverty because “it is only by becoming poor ourselves, by stripping away our complacency, will we be able to identify with the least of our brothers and sisters.”  This piece of advice is good to hear in the context of “a society which has grown comfortable with social exclusion, polarization and scandalous inequality.” 

 In our view, it is enough that the clergy understand and feel the situation of the poor through immersion in community life, but it may be impractical to expect that the Church will do away with its infrastructure and relatively vast resources which with passion, sincerity and commitment can be made to help alleviate the dismal situation of the poor in our province.###

NMP/21 Jan 2015/12.33 p.m.