P10,000.
That, to the National Economic Development Authority, is enough for a family of five to live in a month.
Per NEDA’s matrix of household needs based on the Consumer Price Index weights published by the Philippine Statistics Authority, food and non-alcoholic beverages account for P3,834, while non-food concerns total P6,008. Allowance for vices – alcohol and tobacco – was pegged at P158.
How the PSA came with those figures is beyond human comprehension. How NEDA came to accept them as factual bespeaks of the dearth of brains in that agency.
Indulge us in making this all too simpler: P10,000 per month for a family of five translates to P2,000 per member. Broken down further to P66.66 per day. That can’t even buy two – much less three – square meals for the day.
P10,000.
That’s the worth of intellect, or what passes for it, obtaining at the NEDA.
