Dominance of political dynasties is direct cause of poverty

For telling us the truth, NEDA secretary general Arsenio Balisacan was asked not to accompany President Noynoy Aquino in his one day trip to Brunei. Balisacan was the one being blamed for releasing official government figures validating the fears of many---that these three years under Noynoy gave nothing but misery to the people.

Why is it that the condition of our poor brothers and sisters remains in critical state? The answer is quite evident---government serves the wiles and caprices of the rich instead of acting as the foremost class equalizer.

Under a capitalist system, government is supposed to serve the function of providing stability or equilibrium among and between classes. Policies are supposed to be implemented to level the playing field.

What is happening is this administration paved the way for the strengthening of the economy, making it attractive to capital at the expense of the people. Its neo-liberal policies are being used for profits by Big Business at the expense of the poor. There is a wide gap between the rich and the poor because existing policies favor those who have capital and those without are left in the trenches.

Yes, the Philippine economy is becoming a promising investment haven. It remains so, because growth has shifted from the West to the East. European and US markets are unpalatable to the eyes of investors because they offer them nothing.

Obviously, monies of the rich would flock to economies like the Philippines because it is in the state of development. As it slowly modernizes itself, opportunities abound in the investment sector. However, what is happening is most of the investments came from local sources, while foreign direct investors shun away from us and instead of injecting capital for growth, they invest what most call "hot money" which are investments made on a short-term basis.

These investments are being spent in the stock and money markets; meaning, capitalist money is being made to produce more capitalist money through trading and speculation. That explains why gains are being made in the stock market but not in the real economy. Capitalists refuse to give out more capital to invest for their growth in the market because most are still uncertain about the future of their investments in this country and other factors.

One such factor is the perception of prevailing or worsening graft and corruption and the perception of a still unequal or uneven playing field in the business sector. Rumors that certain classmates of the President are being made to run businesses and use their cloat to defeat their competitors abound, leading to a less than favorable perception of businessmen or capitalist in this government.

Now, again, why are the poor remain in their deplorable state? Most of the nearly 30% of poor Filipinos is jobless or are not earning enough from the informal economy.

Poverty is not a problem---it is a direct consequence of the true problem which is the dominance of a few families with economic interests in governance.

Why poverty remains? Poor people are growing by the numbers and by the day because existing conditions favor the rich instead of the poor. Why are conditions favorable to capital instead of the poor masses? It is because the leaders of this country belong to the elite groups whose interests lie paradoxically opposite those of the poor. If the poor aspires just for a comfortable life, the rich aspires for something higher--dominance and ownership of all things. The rich are predatory while the poor are not.

Government is supposed to mitigate or manage the greed. Government is supposed to provide equal opportunities but no.

The people are being taxed to pay for loans that government incurs in projects that the rich gets so much gains from. Mechanisms against poverty are not being implemented because these directly affect and oppose the interests of the rich and powerful.