MANILA (Mindanao Examiner / June 10, 2013) – A Filipino youth group called Anakbayan protested what it called “killer hikes” under the Aquino administration, referring to recent suicides due to poverty.
It said just recently, a 31-year old public school teacher in Bulacan province hanged himself after his tenure was not renewed and worse, he allegedly failed to collect his unpaid salaries since December last year.
A 14-year old palm oil plantation worker also killed himself after complaining of his dire situation, which consisted of him solely supporting his bedridden grandmother.
“For someone to commit suicide because of poverty shows the extremity and the desperation of their situation,” Vencer Crisostomo, national chairperson of Anakbayan, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.
“While President Aquino is constantly bombarding us with announcements on how the stock market reached another record high’ or that we have received another credit rating upgrade, the daily lives of ordinary Filipinos shows the reality that their lives have not improved under this administration,” he said.
Crisostomo said that under Aquino, the number of families which experienced involuntary hunger (or that which is attributable to lack of capacity to purchase food) from 8.9 million in 2010 to 10.5 million.
Also, while State economists claim that the country’s Gross Domestic Product rate is one of the highest in the whole of Asia, our unemployment rate is also one of the highest in the entire continent.
Killer Hikes
To make matters worse, students and their families are confronted with a series of price increases starting in July, said Crisostomo.
Tuition hikes in 354 colleges and universities were approved this year by the Commission on Higher Education out of a total of 400 schools which applied.
The basic rate for Metro Manila water companies Manila Water and Maynilad might also be hiked, resulting in average increases in monthly bills of P234.40 and P411, respectively.
“As highlighted by last week’s suicides, the plight of the unemployed is aggravated by high prices and the lack of social services. With just about everything becoming more and more expensive, losing one day’s worth of wages already brings immense pressure to family breadwinners,” Crisostomo said.
“By allowing basic commodities and social services to become more and more expensive, Aquino is essentially “killing” the future of our country, both figuratively and literally,” he added.
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