Neglect of health workers
I deplore the sorry plight of barangay health workers, who I have learned get only a minuscule amount for their services.
After I have spoken before the 9th Barangay Health Congress in Laoac, Pangasinan, I vow to do something about what I call the indifference of the national leadership to the welfare and well-being of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
This government boasts of high tax collections and billions of dollars in savings from interest payment because of the strong peso, but what purpose does all that serve if the masses of the people remain dirt-poor?
In an informal talk with leaders of the Barangay Health Association of Urdaneta, I was shocked to learn that each of the 1,800 members is receiving only P200 to P350 a month.
The present government is anti-poor. And that orientation, is illustrated by the burden of taxation it has imposed on the poor.
The Revised Value Added Tax (VAT) of 12 percent was adopted purportedly to improve economic growth, but what it did was to increase the misery of the people. The cost of basic necessities has gone up, while income has remained stagnant.
And the old have not been spared. Because of VAT their discount on food and medicine has been reduced from 20 percent to only 8 percent.
Only the rich benefit from the much ballyhooed economic improvement. Because of the strong peso, big businessmen pay less for their imports, but they don’t pass on the savings to the consumers.
