Only the rich benefit from PHL’s boom – bishops

Only the rich are benefiting from the economic growth being claimed by the Aquino government, Catholic bishops said. Bishops Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao and Arturo Bastes of Sorsogon lauded the administration for the economic development but said it failed to dent poverty enough. “I’m not an economist but my personal assessment is poverty incidence is [...]

Church leaders lambast Aquino presidency

An influential group of church leaders on Tuesday accused of President Benigno Aquino of failing to keep campaign promises to seriously tackle human rights and corruption concerns, nearly three years into his term. The Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines (AMRSP), an umbrella group of leading religious figures from different dominations, issued a [...]

SWS: 10.9-M Pinoy families view selves as poor in end-2012

Some 10.9 million Filipino families considered themselves poor at the close of 2012—about 1.4 million more families than in August, a new survey by pollster Social Weather Stations showed. In its survey on poverty posted on media partner BusinessWorld, the SWS said 54 percent of respondents, or about 10.9 million households, claimed to be poor. [...]

For Vietnam’s Hmong, a constant struggle to stay in school

Vang A Chong’s trip to school must rank among the most arduous in the region. This ethnic Hmong ninth-grader loads a bundle of firewood and 3.5 kgs of rice on his back, then walks 10 kms across cliffs and steep paths from his home in Tran Yen district in northern Vietnam. It takes him three hours to [...]

Priest blames poverty for soaring young offenders

The increasing number of young offenders has been attributed to the inability of government to provide for the citizens. A youth ministry official of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said that the rising wave of crime involving the youth is manifestation of grinding poverty. Aside from poverty, unemployment and even family breakdown [...]

Hong Kong: Govt to set official poverty line

A task force on poverty yesterday said it would follow standards set by the European Union in devising Hong Kong’s first official measure of poverty in a bid to tackle what critics say is a growing wealth gap. Christine Fang Man-Shan, a task force member and chief executive of the Council of Social Service, an [...]

SWS: 1 of 5 Pinoy families claim going hungry despite decrease in self-rated poverty

Despite a slight decrease in self-rated poverty, about one out of five Filipino families – or about 4.3 million – claimed to have experienced hunger or having nothing to eat in the last three months, slightly more than those who said so last May, pollster Social Weather Stations said in a new survey. The SWS [...]

SWS: Fewer Pinoy families consider themselves ‘poor’

800,000 fewer Filipino families consider themselves “poor,” according to the latest survey of pollster Social Weather Stations (SWS).  It’s a significant drop (or about 8 percent) from an estimated 10.3 million families who considered “poor” in a SWS survey just three months before. The latest survey, conducted from August 24 to 27, found that 47% of [...]

Sen. Santiago’s speech confusing Catholics

A good friend of mine, Dr. Rene Bullecer of the Human Life International, e-mailed me the keynote speech of Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago last Sept. 15, 2012 at the UP College of Social Work and Development. Her speech was entitled, “8 Reasons why Catholics ‘Like Me’ Support the RH Bill”, which was sponsored by the [...]

India: Answers sought over malnutrition deaths

A state human rights body has demanded the Madhya Pradesh government explain why at least 25 children have died in the space of two weeks, allegedly as a result of malnutrition. Justice A.K. Saxena, acting chairman of the Madhya Pradesh human rights commission, yesterday directed the state government to conduct a study and present a report within [...]

A 14-year fight for birth control

Growing up, Cecilia Lopez hoped to escape poverty by finishing school and becoming a teacher. But now 52 years old and having never finished school, she wishes she had learned a few things. “If I knew back then about the choices in family planning, I would’ve been able to control having children,” said Lopez, who [...]

‘Fewer Filipinos marry due to poverty’

Fewer Filipinos have been tying the knot in the past decade as marriage has taken a low priority for courting couples because of rising poverty. The recent National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) report on the declining number of marriages from 2001 and 2010, particularly church weddings, was “only a manifestation of [the] poverty and helplessness [...]

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