OPINION: “Deportation Gag” by Juan Mercado

The Bureau of Immigration hasn’t explained, up to now, why it barred an Irish Catholic priest who co-authored a devastating report on the mining industry, from re-entering the Philippines early January.

“It’s the prerogative of a sovereign country to exclude aliens,” mumbled Immigration regulation chief Gary Mendoza after agents denied entry to 52-year old Father Frank Nally. The Justice Department didn’t reveal why it ordered Nally to fly out, he added. Anyway, government is not duty bound to explain to a person why he landed on the blacklist.

No? We have diplomatic relations with Dublin. And what about reciprocal treatment for Filipino overseas workers? They’re flooding into a country that’s among the top five in the European Union today. And we have diplomatic relations with Dublin.

Equally important is the arbitrariness. Filipino taxpayers ask: how does a Catholic scholar, who heads the prestigious Columban Justice and Faith group in Britain, end up, on the same list, as Al’Qaeda or Abu Sayyaf operatives?

And why?Because Father Nally co-authored “Mining in the Philippines: Concerns and Conflicts”. That’s why. This is a 61-page report on the July-August 2006 fact finding mission led by the former UK Secretary of State for Overseas Development Clare Short. Prepared in cooperation with National University of Ireland and Philippine Indigenous People’s Link, that study is rocking government with its findings. Mining has a shoddy historical track record.

The Philippines is among “the worst countries in the world with regard to tailings, dam failures,” UN Environmental Programme records show. It has a legacy of 800 abandoned mines.

The Catholic Bishops Conference, in January 2006, skewered mines in Albay, Palawan, Nueva Vizcaya, South Cotabato, Zamboanga del Norte and Marinduque for massive ecological damage.

“I have never seen anything so systematically destructive as the mining program in the Philippines,” begins Member of Parliament Clare Short. “The environmental effects are as catastrophic as are the effects on the people’s livelihoods.

Government and mining companies should be challenged to demonstrate that (they will) adhere to their own laws and international mining best practice.She flayed the World Bank and the EU for spurring destructive mining.

EU’s “development interventions are failing in the Philippines to live up to (it’s declared) standards: protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and a strong commitment to sustainable development.

The investor community must behave more responsibly in their investment decisions in the Philippines.”

Would that qualify the Honorable Short for this blacklist too? Who draws up that list anyway? Who can scrub names from it? Is there an appeal or review process in what is basically a secret drill? “(We) recognize the external pressures on the Philippines as a deeply-indebted country to generate foreign investments,” the main report goes on to say. (But) the emphasis on export-driven mining” could diminish development prospects.

“Contrary to recommendations of the ‘Extractive Industries Review’, many of the proposed new mining sites are in areas of conflict, including Mindanao. Government should consider repealing the 1995 Mining Act, enact alternative legislation, as well as create a separate Department of Mines, Hydrocarbons and Geo-sciences.

The Philippines is one of 17 mega-biodiversity countries. But it is also a geo-hazard hotspot, whip lashed by typhoons, landslides, volcanoes, etc.It’s environmental stability is already under threat”, raising doubt whether it can meet the eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

“Government must therefore exercise extreme caution in authorizing large-scale mining projects.”

The books are relatively strong laws to protect indigenous peoples and communities. But these are honored more in breach than in practice. Mining in vital watersheds is approved. By law, indigenous people must give their free, prior, informed consent (FPIC) before any project starts within their ancestral lands.

But “this consent is often obtained through misinformation, misrepresentation, bribery and intimidation.”

Government agencies…are failing to fulfill their mandate to protect indigenous people’s rights. Many “view the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples as siding with mining companies”. Government should “end the contradictory practice of allowing mining companies to assert prior rights claims over ancestral land. And the Philippine Senate should ratify ILO Convention 169.

“Human rights abuses and misreporting are clearly associated with some current mining activities…” Companies should publish details of payments, taxes and royalties in accordance with the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative.

"Corruption is a serious problem. Plans for extensive mining operations in remote areas will make it worse. And those in government and international agencies seem to lack the capacity or inclination to challenge and end such misconduct.”

Consider setting up a Mining Ombudsman, the report suggests.The team doubts the benefits claimed, by mining companies, in exchange for incentives. “Once revenues are offset against costs – in particular, the environmental costs – the net gain will be far lower than that claimed, by companies and promoters of mining in government.”

In addition, “the country may be left with clean-up costs that run into billions of dollars.” In 1892, the Spanish colonial government sentenced Jose Rizal to destiero in Dapitan, to muzzle his truth-telling. That exile failed. And deporting, in 2007, a scholar who questioned this country’s mining industry, will flop. It will only embed abuses that sell Filipinos short. (Mindanao Examiner)

OPINION: “Burdens of Disease” by Juan Mercado

“Health is the second blessing we mortals are capable of,” Izaak Walton once wrote.

I can’t recall the first. But fear of falling ill haunts all, specially the poor. That concern stems from their experience with government’s inadequate health systems. At local drugstores, some medicines are priced 5 to 18 times more than in other countries.

Those lusting for election exploit this anxiety. Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmena, for example, gave PhilHealth cards, valid for a year, to 35,000 beneficiaries (aka voters). Could this be misconstrued as politicking? “It’s not misconstrued,” he scoffed. “It is what it is.”

It is, in fact, far more. Health cards lapse after the votes are tallied. But many candidates ignore a critical issue: The “epidemiological transition” that is sweeping through Asian countries.

Harvard University and World Health Organization report that patterns of illnesses and deaths are drastically changing in poor countries like the Philippines – and straining health systems.

Where maladies of the poor once dominated, ailments of the affluent are emerging with a vengeance, Harvard and WHO note in their study: “The Global Burden of Disease” Tuberculosis, diarrhea, pneumonia, measles, dengue, infant malnutrition are being rapidly overtaken by stroke, diabetes, obesity, etc.

Only the very poorest countries have not started this transition to Western type diseases, University of Sydney’s Dr Bruce Neal writes in “Far Eastern Economic Review”.

Large scale studies, for example, found: “One in eight of those aged over 30 had diabetes. And an equal number showed prediabetes”. Strokes were spiraling. “Obsolete” diseases still ravage slums and uplands, of the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal or Sudan.

But in affluent and urbanized Singapore, Germany, Korea or Hong Kong, as well as the “gated enclaves” of the rich here, fat-saturated diets, sedentary life styles, obesity boost incidence of chronic diseases. Cheek-by-jowl, the overfed and ill-nourished suffer their differing ailments.

“Potentates goodly in girth” popularized fat-reducing Xenia. But chronic hunger stunts 32 out of every 100 kids, “Philippine Human Development Report 2006” points out. And 20 percent of infants are puny under weights. In Cebu, 28 out of every 100 lack access to safe potable water.

Scientists have crafted new “burden-of-disease” indicators to track this transition’s effects.
Used since the mid-1990s, this new gauge adds up “life years lost due to diseases” and early graves, i.e. years wasted by pre-mature deaths, explain University of Ulster’s S.R. Osmani and A. Bhargaya from Houston University.

The novel tape measure is known as “Dalys” --shorthand for “disability adjusted life-years per thousand of population”. Among other things, “Daly’s” found that : Every one thousand Filipinos – like the 3.6 billion men, women and children who live in Asia today – lose the equivalent of 259 years from illness-linked disabilities and premature deaths.

Total life years lost, on the other hand, amounted to 259 years per 1,000 populations. Losses of such magnitude can beggar a nation. But political trapos do not factor such issues into their agendas. Hence, they are blind to implications of the Asian Development Bank warning: The two phases of this “transition in this burden of disease” do not follow in sequence, In fact, they interlock.

As a result, richer and poorer countries “share a common predicament: that of an overlapping health transition,” Dab’s Review points out. Nations like the Philippines do not have the option of solving one crisis at a time.

Instead, “they must tackle simultaneously problems the western world had the privilege of tackling sequentially. Emerging Asia will not have this “luxury” But problems spill far beyond casting of the ballot. Health will be costlier in the future, as populations’ age, ADB cautions.

Articulate groups, in cities, will seek to skew limited budgets towards treatment of their chronic diseases. “This will perpetuate disadvantage to the poor.” Indeed, needy countries should not “emulate Western style physician-driven programs,” adds Dr. Bryce Neal.

“(They) provide a high-cost solution for the wealthy few”. We allocate the equivalent of $174 per capita for health, Ump’s Human Development Report notes. The comparative figure for Malaysians is $374 and $1,074 for Koreans.

Over-worked, under supplied and underpaid municipal health workers close the health gap for most Filipinos, on a daily basis, in 81 provinces and 117 cities. They tap into the rich trove of traditional medicinal plants: from lagundi for coughs to amplaya for diabetes.

It’s an uphill fight. As an Inquirer “Talk of the Town” feature asked: Were multinational drug lobbies, with a few susceptible doctors, behind downgrading of ampalaya (momordica charantia), long listed as a scientifically validated medicinal plant?

That move bankrupted thousands of small ampalaya farmers. And it stripped municipal health workers of a tool in their kits. Now, Health Secretary Francisco Toque has dusted off scientific studies on ampalaya that were shoved under the rug.

He could reinstate the plant – and turn attention to the next 10 medicinal plants that health workers could use.“San Carlos University studies, in Cebu’s mountains, over 200 found medicinal plants,” Dr Franz Siedenchwarz reported. “But only one has been commercially exploited – marijuana.”

OPINION: “REAR BUMPER GAUGE” by Juan Mercado

“You burn 14 days a year staring at the rear bumper of the car ahead,” a friend grouses. One can quibble with his traffic gridlock estimates. But glazed eyes of passengers, trapped in stop-go traffic, tell of stiff costs in fuel burnt, lost hours, raw nerves and gutted lungs.

People use this “gauge” in bumper-to-bumper lanes from Delhi's Ring Road, Bangkok’s Ploenchit road to Manila’s Edsa. And the problem explains those new transport indicators for even medium-size Asian cities, released by the World Research Institute Sunday.

Like Davaoenos and Cebuanos, people in Xi'an in China, Pune in India, and Hanoi, Vietnam, find their commutes longer and costlier. As population sprawls into the suburbs, roads clog up. Jakarta’s population “imploded” to 8 million in 15 years – one tenth the time it took New York City to reach the same number. Traffic congestion is spreading, WRI notes in: “Sustainable Transport Development.”

In Asia, "the rate of vehicle ownership, by individuals, is growing more rapidly than what public or private infrastructure can accommodate,” WRI points out. “More than half of all trips …are made on foot or by two-or three-wheeled vehicles”. Respiratory and other ailments climb as smoke belchers gas passengers.

Motorcycle ownership in Vietnam stands at 94% compared to 37% for the Philippines. The numbers of cycles doubled in less than a decade. In Cebu City vigilantes use motorcycles, stripped of license plates, for assassination. India produced over 10 million vehicles last year, the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) reports. But in Asia, distribution remains skewed: 667 Japanese, out of every 1000, drove a car; 42 Filipinos did.

Thailand spends 5% to 6% percent of its GDP for infrastructure. The Bangkok-Chonburi motorway is the newest addition to its over 335 kilometer toll way. Our stunted toll ways barely cover 150 kilometers. "The emphasis throughout Asia has been on adding roads or building high-cost systems such as rail-based metros,” WRI notes.

WRI indicators cover: access, safety, environment, economic and social sustainability and governance. They’re designed to help cities unsnarl gridlocks. The need is for “more environmentally sustainable modes, such as non-motorized transport and lower-cost bus systems."

“But ever increasing cars fill the ever increasing space,” Sunita Narain snaps in the “Economics of Congestion”. In the West, the car replaced the bus or bicycle. “But in our world, it only marginalized space…”

In Asian cities, cars and two-wheelers carry less than 20% of commuters. Buses, bicycles, etc. transport the rest. But cars and motorcycles occupy over 90% city's road space. Beneficiaries of the road, flyover or elevated highway are those in cars or astride motorcycles.

Aside from ill health stemming from pollution and congestion’s cost in time, fuel etc, and there are glossed over bills, Narain claims. These are for include : ( a ) cost of the road; ( b ) maintaining and policing it; ( c ) and ( e ) expense for space.

You need 23 square meters to park a car but only 15 to install a desk in your office. “The one million-odd cars in Delhi take up 11 per cent of the city's urban area”. Cities should charge for to reflect the real cost of roads. Narain adds: “Ultimately, the issue is not even what it costs…but is why we are not estimating the losses”.

There are estimates and estimates. And their conclusions vary from the perspectives. Thai economists figure congestion lops 6% off Bangkok’s economic production. A National Center for Transportation Studies tally for Philippine traffic congestion losses came to iP100 billion. But that’s skewed whenever price of oil bolts from $48 a barrel to $65.

Asean lost $11 billion, in 2000, due to the 73,000 road deaths and 1.8 million injuries, says Asian Development Bank Police in the Philippines and Indonesia under-report fatalities in these “mean streets.” And traffic agencies are notably lax. Possession of a driver’s license here does not guarantee the holder knows how to drive.

Air pollution in Asia's worst-affected cities is five to six times the levels considered safe by the World Health Organization. Outdoor air pollution causes 530,000 premature deaths in Asia “TSP” or total suspended particulates, breach World Health Organizations safety benchmarks five fold in places like Metro Manila. The microscopic dust embeds itself in the lung and causes respiratory disease, cancer and other ailments.

“Lead emissions result in a significant loss of cognitive capacity among children”. That’s scientific jargon for dumbing down kids. Mental capacity of children constantly gassed by smoke belchers is crimped. “Your elevators don’t go to the top floor” is a taunt that’ll be tossed at them as they grow up.

There are success stories too. Bangkok cut pollution levels in half, over a decade, by clamping higher taxes on “tuk-tuks”-- two-stroke tricycles .that were among the heaviest polluters. Singaporeans must bid for the right to buy cars. Traffic in the central district is restricted during peak hours and public transport is extensive.

“Partial calculations have limitations,” notes the book: “Emerging Asia – Changes and Challenges.” “But they place the real costs of congestion in perspective (for) many policymakers who remain unaware of the full extent of the problem.”

The election season has started. This guarantees our policymakers won’t look at those “rear-bumper gauges” anytime soon.

OPINION: “WAVING GOODBYE AS COP-OUT” by Juan Mercado

“Training a doctor costs in excess of $152,000 (or P7.52 million at present exchange rates)… Huge numbers of teachers, including many of the best trained, leave the country directly after qualifying.

And for the state to get no return on this enormous investment is a real problem”. That describes the Filipino diaspora, right?

Wrong. That’s the “brain drain” sapping South Africa, as described by Education Minister Kader Assmal, on the British Broadcasting Corporation’s program: “World on the Move”. And this drain is reflected in the rising numbers who cross borders, often illegally, desperate for a better future.
Globally, one in every 52 migrants comes from Asia and the Pacific. Today, 7.92 million Filipinos work abroad. Within ASEAN, the number of women migrants, and incidence of undocumented migration, are on the upswing, notes Asian Development Bank.

At the Cebu Summit, ASEAN heads of state approved five documents, one of them being: The “ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers”. The accord is not legally-binding. But it is a useful step that commits the 10 ASEAN countries to provide better safeguards for a mobile, mushrooming – and increasingly feminine --workforce. In Hong Kong alone, there are 142,000 Filipinos, 108,000 Indonesians and 30,000 Thais.

Indonesians tend to be younger than most ASEAN migrants who usually are 25 to 30 years old, the ADB survey found. Eight out of 10 completed high school. “Filipinos are among the most highly educated”.

Latin American migrants mostly head for the U.S, sometimes Canada. In contrast, migrants from Asia and the Pacific cascade into over 160 countries and crisscross ASEAN countries. A third of the 165,000 Malaysians, who work in Singapore, commute across the now-flooded Johore causeway daily. Filipino staffs in Doha duty-free shops, teach in Saipan, serve as parish priests in Lebanon, collect garbage in Riyadh and fly jets out of Detroit.

Disparities in law, policy and practice, within ASEAN, cause problems. Malaysian labor laws, for example, do no cover domestic workers. Many “Indonesian maids work 16–18 hours a day, 7 days a week, and earn less then US$5,” Kuala Lumpur’s Sun newspaper reports. In Singapore, pay for Filipino domestic helpers is about 30% more than for Indonesians. They get 1 or 2 days of rest a week, which Indonesians typically do not receive.

“Whether this disparity is market driven is highly debatable”, the study adds. “Filipinos…have well-established network and support systems to get better labor terms and conditions.” A non-legally binding document, the new ASEAN accord will take the first hesitant but welcome steps to close these gaps.

In 2004, migrant workers, the world over, sent home through formal channels, an estimated US $127 billion. What comes through couriers and other conduits is murky.

Asians accounted for about US$53 billion (or 42 percent) of the official stream -- hefty enough to alter Central Bank balance sheets. Filipino overseas workers bought a quarter of the lots sold by big real estate firms in 2006, up from 15% last year. Aside from Mexico, the other top four recipients were: India, Philippines, China and Pakistan.

Bulk of remittances comes in modest packets for families, in Indonesian kampungs, Thai amphurs or our barangays. On average, migrants send back $300 to their families. And the cash goes to the poorer third of the population. For thousands it means food on the table, school for the kids, medicine, even cash for beer, cockfights and jueteng.

Governments and banks are scrambling to improve channels for funneling funds, away from bottomless consumption into lasting investments.
The hunger that drives this riptide of people will not ebb soon. “The movement of people from poor and failing states to rich and stable ones is as inevitable as water running downhill,” says BBC George Alagiah. “If water is a force of nature, then migration is a force of history.”

Alagiah is from Sri Lanka who, migrating via Ghana, who became a leading broadcaster. Those who left Ireland after the Potato Famine enriched America, he says.

If Australia relied solely on migrants from England, it’d be a backwater country today. And the Indian “diaspora” brought commercial energy and professional skills to Britain. “The challenge is not to try to stop migration but how to manage it.”

But how? To stem the torrent of “illegals” from Africa, the European Union is tightening immigration rules. South Africa mutters about invoking the right to refuse systematic recruitment of its professionals. The US is building a wall along the Mexico border. And visa applicants must debunk the “presumption they seek to immigrate.”

Other forces are at work. Modern information technology stokes aspirations. “How come immigrants looking for a better life in the West aren't interested in developing their countries of origin?” gripes a Finnish writer. “Every person has an obligation to their folk and nation and all these immigrants looking for an easier life are dodging their responsibility by harvesting from a table set by others.”

Ultimately, a country that can not hold to its best and brightest, compromises its future. And we Filipinos must ask ourselves: Is waving our migrants good-bye (and waiting for their check in the next mail) a copout for our failure to get our act together at home?

OPINION: "OF WOMEN AND MEN" by Juan L. Mercado

Suppose you stumbled across the advertisement below in your favorite newspaper. (The one you’re now reading, of course.) How would you respond? The Atlanta Journal, in fact, published this ad in its Sunday edition – and got over 15,000 responses. Check it out.

“SINGLE FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good girl who loves to play. I like long walks, cozy nights, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips. Dinner by candlelight will have me eating out of your hand. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work; wearing only what nature gave me. Call 875-6420 and ask for Dolly. I'll be waiting...”

And over 15,000 men found themselves calling up the SPCA or “Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”.

But do you know how to make your wife – or fiancée happy? No sweat, emails this optimist. He’s so sure, he jotted down a 54-point formula titled -: “Making Woman Happy: Easy Task With List)”.For good measure, he tossed in a two-item checklist for the weaker of the species. They appear below. Now, get cracking – and tell me if it works for you.

It's not difficult to make a woman happy. A man only needs to be: 1. a friend; 2. a companion; 3. a lover; 4. a brother; 5. a father; 6. a master; 7. a chef; 8. an electrician; 9. a carpenter; 10. a plumber; 11. a mechanic; 12. a decorator and 13. a stylist.

In addition, he must be: 14. a sexologist; 15. a gynecologist 16. a psychologist 17. a pest exterminator; 18. a psychiatrist; 19. a healer; 20. a good listener; and 21. an organizer.

As a 22. good father, he will be : 23. very clean; 24. sympathetic; 25. athletic; 26. warm; 27. attentive; 28. gallant; 29. intelligent; 30. funny; 31. creative; 32. tender; 33. strong; 34. understanding; 35. tolerant; 36. prudent; 37. ambitious; 38. capable; 39. courageous; 40. determined; 41. true; 42. dependable; 43. passionate; and 44. compassionate.

At the same time, he must never, never forget to: 45. compliment her regularly; 46. love shopping; 47. be honest; 48. be very rich; 49. not stress her out; and, very important, 50. not look at other girls. Furthermore, he should always 51. give her lots of attention, but expect little himself; 52. lavish lots of time on her, especially time for herself; and 53. give her lots of space, never worrying about where she goes. Number 54 is equally important: Never forget birthdays, anniversaries and arrangements she makes.

It takes two to tango. Remember? So, here’s how to make a man happy: 1. Show up naked; and 2. Bring Beer.

But the man-woman relationship looks very different when seen by children. Here are some questions popped to kids, between the ages of 6 to 10. The answers are refreshing, even unnerving.

Q. How would you make a marriage work? A. “Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.” (Ricky, age 10.) Q. When is it okay to kiss somebody? A. “When they’re rich”. (Rita, age 7. This girl will go places.) Another answer from Tony, age 8: “The law says you have to be 18. So I wouldn't mess with that.” Q. Is it better to be single or married? A. “It's better for girls to be single. But not for boys. Boys need someone to clean up after them. ( Anita, age 9).

Q. Would the world be different if people didn’t get married? A. “There sure would be a lot of kids to explain.” (Ricardo, age 9) Q. How do you decide whom to marry? A. “No person decides before they grow up whom they're going to marry. God decides it all the way before. And you get to find out who you're stuck with later” (Carmen, 8)

Q .How can a stranger tells if two people are married? A. “He’ll have to guess. Are they yelling at the same kids? (Kristin, 6). Q. And how would you make a marriage work? A. “Tell your wife that she looks pretty, even if she looks like a truck.” (Ricky, age 10.)

Of course, the man-woman relationship alters when you’ve grown up (O.K. Grown older). How do you tell that when you’re what former President Bill Clinton called: “near-elderly”? Some prefer: “junior senior citizen.” Here are some signs:

Dinner and a movie are now the whole date instead of the beginning of one. You go to the drug store for antacid, not pregnancy tests. And older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you. You take naps. And sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.

You actually keep more food than beer in the fridge. And 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed. You eat breakfast food at breakfast time. "I just can't drink the way I used to" has replaced “I'm never going to drink that much again."

Now, 90 percent of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14. You also hum the songs you hear in the elevator. And you're the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won't turn down the p.a. system.

Finally you start dispensing freely unsought advice on how to stay young like: ““Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down” Or: “Keep learning. The devil's name is Alzheimer's!”

OPINION: VITAL THRESHOLD by Juan Mercado

“Life is the threshold at which all other hopes begin.” And Health Secretary Francisco Duque is talking of how this threshold is surging, seen in our lengthening life expectancies.

In the mid-40s, life was “nasty, brutish and short” with life expectancy at 47 years. Today, it is 70 years, “due to a shift to a healthier life style,” the secretary says. DDT spraying after World War II, in fact, stomped out malaria that helped to lengthen lives.

“We’ve surpassed Thailand’s life expectancy of below 70”, the secretary went on. Thus, more Filipinos will, in William Butler Yeats’ haunting image, “comb grey hair” “Human Development Report 2006”, in fact, reveals that Filipino life expectancy today is 70.2 years. And it is 69.7 years for Thais.

It's a pity that Secretary Duque’s comparison skips the international context. He also didn’t bring out the stark disparities between provinces.

Singaporeans can look forward to 79 years of life. And the Japanese golfer, who tees off here, will probably outlive his Filipino caddy by 12 years. That gap shows what is possible. “That a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/ Or what’s a heaven for?” Browning once asked.

Life expectancy for Pampangenos and Cebuanos is now 72 years, “Philippine Human Development Report” reveals. But people in Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Maguindanao are handcuffed to life spans that at 52, are almost a generation In between these extremes are people in Kalinga, Apayao, Quirino and Antique : 62 years is within their reach.

These “fault lines” mirror the skewed distribution of wealth, power, and strange hold over resources, by miniscule elite. The richest 20 percent in Metro Manila, for example, consume 45 centavos out of every peso. Mostly huddled in the slums, the poorest 20 percent try to make do with eight centavos.

Poverty is a “state of powerlessness, and not merely the lack of assets and services to meet the most basic of needs.” And chronic hunger spawns lethargy, apathy and ill-health, so widespread, they're taken for granted. Also, horizons of the rich rarely extend beyond their “gated enclaves”. The rich man’s line of sight, the parable tells us, blotted out Lazarus scrounging for crumbs at his gate.

Affluence guarantees these elite aside from summer homes, second cars, trips abroad -food, medical care, shelter, education, clean water, sanitation, aside from summer homes, second cars, trips abroad. These add on years of life, prompting many to ask: Does wealth vest a franchise to life on the few?

We must learn to see these dry-as-dust figures for what they really are: sentences to early deaths for helpless men, women and children. Many never get to thresholds “at which all other hopes begin”.

“Differences in homes, clothing, schools or even diets, are galling enough,” the late National Scientist Dioscoro Umali told Asia Society in New York. “But denial of life and premature graves constitute an obscene injustice…and cuts into the depths of our common humanity. They vest the cries for justice with the pent force of suppressed anger. We will reap the whirlwind if we persist in sowing the wind this way.”

This denial of life probably is seen most vividly in what Secretary Duque frets about: “the increasing number of maternal deaths, especially in rural areas”. Out of every 100,000 deliveries here today, he reports, 270 Filipina mothers die. This is six times the maternal death rate of Thailand which is 44. Why this stark difference?

Far too many Filipina mothers resort to untrained "hilots", the secretary said. DOH is therefore introducing maternity packages. These could steer pregnant women to local health centers, which often are short of medicine, or government hospitals, which invariably are overcrowded.

You deliver a baby in Thailand today; nine out of ten you'll have skilled health personnel in attendance, UN human development indicators. That slumps to only six out of ten in the Philippines. Are we seeing here part of the bill for mass migration of our doctors, nurses or midwives?

Thailand’s smaller population has higher per capita income. Yet, Bangkok spent $260 per capita of its GDP for health. We penny-pinched at $170. No wonder, 99 percent of Thai kids are fully immunized against TB. Compare that to 58 percent for Filipinos. And will Thais, in the future, be taller than Filipinos? Out of every 100 Filipino school kids, 32 are stunted, compared to 13 percent for Thais.

Clean water and sanitation are the most cost-efficient means for whittling death rates, says the UNDP study: “Beyond Scarcity". Some 99 percent of Thais have access improved sanitation. But only 72 percent of Filipinos do In Cuba City, 38 out of every 100 households tap into water supplies of neighbors because of its obsolete municipal system and collapsing aquifers.

The litmus test for those seeking elections in May is what they can do about premature deaths now that will make a difference later. The operative word is now. “Tomorrow is a postdated check. But today is cash.”

As those deaths show, we are a country of great needs. We need models of limited wants. Surely, fewer deaths for Filipina mothers and children are within our reach. We have the resources, the technology, and the human skills to ensure that the “threshold where all other hopes begin” need not close. But who has the backbone?