State of Juan’s pocket

By Herbert Vego

ACCORDING to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the average annual income of the Filipino family based on its latest survey (2023), assuming it’s still applicable, stands at ₱353.23 thousand.

That looks sufficient because, as the same agency shows, the average annual family expenditure is lower at ₱258.05 thousand.

Due to the lopsided distribution of wealth, however, the Philippines’ poverty rate is still undesirable at 15.5 percent, though an improvement from 18.1 percent in 2021.

To put it bluntly, if there are now 120 Filipino residents, then 18 million of us Filipinos still do not earn enough money to meet our basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter.

This makes us wonder whether President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was correct when he vowed to lower the country’s poverty rate to nine percent in 2028 by investing in job-generating infrastructure and social protection programs.

A news report in the Manila Standard (Aug. 11, 2024), quoted Marcos as having said that in his two years of administration, “We have lifted two and a half million Filipinos out of poverty and only 10.9 percent of Filipino families remain poor. Our goal is to further reduce this rate to nine percent by 2028 and improve the lives of eight million Filipinos. More and more of our compatriots have decent and formal jobs and have become part of the middle class.”

According to the PSA, the unemployment rate in the Philippines has decreased to 3.1% in June 2024, from 4.5% in the same month last year.

These numbers mean nothing, however, to our countrymen who do not feel their effects, who are at a loss on how to ride with the President’s promised “economic transformation.”

We have heard him boast about foreign investors coming in. Where are they?

According to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), foreign direct investments reached ₱ 148.43 billion in the first quarter of 2024 – unfortunately a decrease of 63.6 percent from ₱408.22 billion in the same quarter of 2023, according to a PSA report dated May 16, 2024.

You see, while we could no longer count on ten fingers the countries that Marcos has visited, we see no consequential growth in foreign investments.

No doubt it’s because we have poor infrastructure, high power cost, slow broadband connections, regulatory inconsistencies, and red-tape bureaucracy marked by corruption from bottom to top.

There is no showing that the drug lords who used to bring in tons of shabu under the “blind eyes” of former President Rodrigo Duterte are no longer around.

Unless we understand the word “inflation”, we might be lulled into believing that the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) appropriating a record-breaking national budget of ₱6.352 trillion for 2025 would boost the economy.

The Philippines’ growth forecast for 2025 is 6.2%.  It is lower than the 8% that the Department of Finance had targeted for the current year, which is proving to be unachievable, since we posted only 6.3% in the second quarter of 2024.

As far as the ordinary Juan dela Cruz is concerned, it has no impact on his lifestyle. He is worried because his ₱610 daily minimum wage today has lower buying power than his ₱570 previously.

I think so, too, because even if my income has increased, I need to practice minimalism, which means intentionally buying only the things I really need.

-oOo-

CLARIFICATION ON MORE POWER REFUND

OVER a year after initiating the bill deposit refund program, MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) has successfully released P2.8 million in refunds to 685 eligible customers in Iloilo City.

It’s in accordance with Article 7 of the Magna Carta for Residential Electricity Consumers, requiring distribution utilities to refund the bill deposit of customers who have paid their bills on or before the due date for three consecutive years (36 months) and have no record of service disconnection.

Around 1,000 customers have already qualified for that refund, though not all of them have claimed it yet.

What happens when it remains unclaimed?

According to Maricon Garrido, the customer-care manager of MORE Power, bill refunds have no expiration date.

In fact, even those who have not complied with the 36-month of paying bills on time may try to qualify for a refund next time.

This means that, from now on, they must strive to complete another 36-month on-time cycle to be entitled for deposit refund.

All distribution utilities require new customers a bill deposit equivalent to one-month billing.

Unrefunded customers may still claim their refund, plus an annual interest rate, if they choose to terminate their electric service.