By Benjamin Cuaresma
There is something deeply disturbing about people who can look at ₱96 a day and suggest that a Filipino earning that amount is no longer poor. Have they completely lost touch with the reality outside their offices? Have they ever tried stretching ₱96 across an entire day, let alone using it to feed a family? Before celebrating such a poverty benchmark, those responsible for defending it should experience the hardship themselves. Try buying rice, viand and other necessities with that amount. Then explain how anyone is supposed to survive.
A government statistic may draw a line between poor and non-poor, but it cannot change what happens at the dinner table. Empty plates do not become full because an official report says a household has crossed a poverty threshold. Children still need food, parents still have bills to pay, and workers still struggle to make their wages last until the next payday. No mathematical formula can make those realities disappear.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) deserves recognition for challenging the PSA’s statement and demanding that authorities explain the basis of the ₱96 figure. Its opposition raises a question that deserves a clear answer: what kind of standard of living does the government consider acceptable for an ordinary Filipino? With inflation and low wages squeezing household budgets, the public deserves more than figures that appear disconnected from everyday experience.
And let us not forget that ₱1,000 does not stretch as far as it once did. Bayan cited an estimated purchasing power equivalent of only around ₱720, underscoring its argument that rising prices continue to eat into people’s income. For families living from one payday to another, even a small increase in the cost of basic goods can mean less food, postponed expenses and another night of worrying about tomorrow.
Here is a challenge to everyone who insists that ₱96 a day is enough: surrender your comfortable lifestyle and try living on that amount. No extra money, no special allowance, no assistance from anyone. Make it your daily budget and see how far it takes you. Do not lecture struggling Filipinos about poverty when you have never experienced the hardship you are defining. The poor do not need government figures that make their suffering look smaller. They need wages, opportunities and living conditions that allow them to live with dignity. If ₱96 is your definition of escaping poverty, perhaps it is time you experienced your own definition first.
ia/xf
