The DCV Program - Poverty and Crime

The Poverty and Crime Situation in the Philippines

Depressed Squatters Area According to the National Census report as of May 1, 2000, the Philippine population exceeded 76 million Filipinos. Of this number, almost 10 million reside in the Metropolitan-Manila area also known as the National Capital Region (NCR). Of this nearly 80 million Filipinos (by this time and certainly over 10 million in the NCR), it is estimated that about seventy percent (70%) of Filipinos make just barely enough or less than enough of what they need to live on. Even if a family of four or five persons lived on five thousand pesos (PHP 5,000.) a month (assuming only the head of the family works and earns), that amount is equivalent to less than a hundred US dollars a month and covers mainly the necessities the family will need to survive on and not much else. If necessary, compromises are made to prioritize expenses such as foregoing the payment of certain bills, debts and other payables. This amount cannot suffice in times of unexpected expenses such as hospitalizations, medical needs and the like. In order to make ends meet, such families resort to other means including going deep (or deeper) into debt even if it means paying illegally high interest rates to loan sharks.

Even as this condition exists, the gap between the rich minority and the poor majority has only increased. Therefore, if one would visualize the entire money supply in the Philippines as a pie chart, the huge bulk of the pie chart would go to the very few wealthy entities and families while a meager slice is shared among the poor and there simply is not enough to go around for them.

Due to this situation, many of our citizens have resorted to various means of income generation to stay afloat or at least augment the family income. Although most go into legitimate means to earn extra incomes, some have resorted to illegal or criminal means. Despite statistics which point to a lowering of the crime rate, the problem is still considerably large and as long as the root cause of criminality exists, that is the poverty situation itself, the problem will remain a major concern. Good governance is not yet a reality, as incidents of graft and corruption in government offices are rampant and at this moment, no effective alternative solution to reduce or to vanish it, has been presented in our society.

Composite Showing Poverty, Crime and Environmental Degradation Also, in the case of drugs and other organized crimes, it is difficult and very complex to contain and prevent its proliferation using only conventional means, as these are already well-networked activities and the evil-doers use modern sophisticated tools and techniques to implement these as well, along with their minions and arsenals of lethal weaponry. And of course, they have their money and influential connections in high places.

While there are certain government agencies and offices, charities, foundations and other benevolent organizations at work (and working hard) to help ease the poverty and crime situation in this country, it is never enough. In fact, even the military establishment, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, in the past and even recently have determined to take matters into their own hands to force reforms and changes in our government overnight without regard to legal procedures as provided in the Constitution by staging coup attempts which only damaged the country's reputation and peace and order, no matter how well meaning their intentions may have been.

These are the reasons we have established our own organization, the Morjil C. Valencia Foundation Against Crimes and Poverty, Inc. also known as the MCV Foundation, to share and do our part in uniting the people, alleviating poverty, protect and preserve our environment, and in the process, significantly reduce if not eradicate crime in our society so that peace will reign forever.

The Link Between Corruption and Poverty

In his inaugural speech last June 30, 2010, President Benigno S. Aquino III said "Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap" (If there is no corruption, there would be no poor people / poverty"). This statement emphasizes the link of corruption in government with the poverty situation in the Philippines and can well apply to many other developing countries as well. While poverty breeds crime among the people, government corruption itself breeds poverty in a number of ways, here are just some examples:

Forcing citizens to pay "grease money" and bribes to obtain services or favor from government officials and personnel;
Use of position in government to "give" favors to the wealthy at the expense of justice and benefits to the less fortunate or less priviledged which can cause poor people to lose their land and homes or send the innocent to jail (the despicable act is rewarded, in turn by the wealthy);
Diverting government funds meant for infrastructure, social services and projects by politicians for their own use, and to their relatives and cronies;
Sabotage biddings and giving of contracts for government projects in favor of bribe-givers or business associates rather than to qualified parties who can do better and at lower cost.

As these corrupt practices need to be addressed, it may still need a considerable time before these are eradicated. However, while these ills continue to impoverish the citizenry, The DCV Program seeks to empower these citizens by providing a means of income that would more than make up what was lost to the corrupt officials. NOT that they would have the grease money to pay, but the extra income can allow them to afford better alternatives (such as private sector services) and even seek proper legal action against those officials.

It should be noted that the MCV Foundation is also studying ways and means that would deter and weed out government corruption, mainly funded by the DCV Program.