LUBAO, Pampanga – If the Sagip partylist will have its way, poverty alleviation should be prioritized.
Former representative of Alagad partylist and veteran lawmaker, Rodante Marcoleta, said his group’s advocacy is to alleviate poverty for more than 30 million poor Filipinos.
Marcoleta, who represented Alagad partylist in the 13th, 14th and 15th Congress, is now the first nominee of Sagip (Social Amelioration and Genuine Intervention on Poverty) partylist which has retired teacher Erlinda Santiago as its representative in the present 16th Congress.
During a break from their campaign here last Friday, Marcoleta told the local press that there are three out of 10 Filipinos who are poor which is approximately 30 million as deduced from our present population of more than 100 million Filipinos. He said Sagip’s aim is to help this poor sector.
“Buri na sabyan, ninuman balen mibili keng kakalulwan sasagipan mila ren lakwas na retang anak ampo reng babai kasi reni ing vulnerable keng poverty anyapin pane ming pakikwnan mirinan la sanang pamikatagun nung makananu ing karelang kabilyan a alleviate tamu (That means that whoever is considered as marginalized, we save them especially the children and women because these are the most vulnerable in poverty that is also why we always try our best to get attention to their plight for us to alleviate them from their condition),” Marcoleta said.
But in order to uplift them from their impoverished state, at least one family member should be able to get a good college education, he said. “(Number one ing siyempre, bangkanita tumas ing karelang kabyayan, kailangna ating makapagaral andyang metung mu kareng anak da).”
“Anya pakikwanan mi ing scholarship makipate kami talaga ken kailangan talaga midinan la bawat metung a pamilya kasi atin yang pag asa kanita (That is why we really fight for scholarships because every family should be given one to give them a chance),” he pointed out.
Marcoleta said among his siblings in the family, it was him who really studied hard to get a good education.
But life was hard especially from his younger days in Paniqui, Tarlac where he said his family subsisted mostly from “alubebe” or fermented fish paste.
“Menibat ke keng tatalagang kakalulwan, nung minsan emubalu nung nuka kumang pamangan. Alubebe namu bangkanita dakal dinan meng danum igogo muneng igogo yan potang kayi kabit me keng lata yan (We came from real poverty, sometimes we don’t even know where to get our food. Fermented fish paste would be our choice because we can mix it with water and stir it to augment it and then put it in cans),” he mused.
“Nung misan ita mu sabayan miyang mapaling nasi abe (Sometimes that’s all we had, and we accompanied it with steaming rice),” he pondered. “Nung misan ing talbus kamuti emune laga, kayan munyang asin (Sometimes also we don’t boil the sprouts of camote leaves anymore, we just put salt on it),” he said.
Marcoleta said the Philippines can be free from poverty as envisioned by Sagip. He said in China from 1978 up to 2015, there were 700 million impoverished people, but they were liberated from their poor state because of industrialization and manufacturing.
Marcoleta said the problem with the Philippines is we bypassed industrialization and manufacturing and went directly to service that is why we now have many BPOs or call centers.
Let us give poor people lands like what they did in China and focus on mass productions, manufacturing and industrialization he said.
“There are only about 30 million poor Filipinos as compared to China, can we not do that?” he asked.
