Who is Stupid Between Me and This Ex-Solon, Radioman?

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Angelo Palmones is an average if not a mediocre broadcaster and a former Agham Partylist congressman, he did not know economics as based on my recent  squabbles with him at Facebook.

His ignorance was exacerbated by his gall to call me “stupid” after I wrote last week on my blog cum column that North Cotabato is one of the poorest provinces in the Philippines. 

Excerpts:

ANGELO PALMONES: Whoever invited this stupid blogger is insulting the people of North Cotabato. He tossed up his sponsors with flowery piece by pulling down the efforts of all people of NCot. Better research will guide you boy on how many products of my beloved province are now sold abroad. Violence is more prevalent in Metro Manila, check your stat before making generalization. North Cotabato is not M’lang!"

(When a common friend at Facebook Luvin Candari, an Ilonggo, tagged me on Angelo’s attack, here was my answer)

MARK MACHEVELLI ORTIGOZA (MY OTHER NAME AT FB): Sabton ta na’ kung sino mas stupid sa amon ni Angelo (I’m going to rebut him and show who is stupid between me and Angelo) . The son of a gun was shooting from the hips. I only need to cite a NEDA report in my column. Luvin Candari is smarter than this congressional has- been. Im going to school him he he he.

PALMONES: That NEDA report has been disputed. The most recent and relevant basis of North Cotabato’s standing, including some of the well-performing towns and Kidapawan City, is DILG’s SEAL OF GOOD GOVERNANCE. You can Google it for better understanding.

ORTIGOZA: My arguments will be anchored on the number of poor Filipinos to buttress my argument that your province is one of the Top 10 Poorest Provinces in the Phillippines. SEAL is primordially on management level. I will talk in my column about economic threshold in peso term as based on the data of the Philippines Statistics Authority, National Anti- Poverty Commission, and NEDA.

PALMONES: Good luck for that piece. I hope it will improve rustic Mlang.

My argument on my blog that got the goat of Palmones was not new to me since I used, for example the Annual Per Capita Poverty Threshold (APCPT) on my radio and newspaper commentaries in Luzon whenever I compared the provincial and municipal local government units in the northern part of the country.

Now let’s go to the jugular.

 You readers decide whom between me and Angelo is stupid after I cite and explain here why North Cotabato Province  is the seventh (7) province with more poorest families in the Philippines according to the Public Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2015. The next survey results of the PSA will be in 2019.

Here’s table:

As what the table above illustrates North Cotabato is No. 7 with the most number of households, composed by five members each, classified as poor. Cebu Province was No. 1 due to its 2.93 million (exclude its three highly urbanized cities) biggest population outside Metro Manila. It's ironic that the almost one million populated Cebu City burgeoned while its province deteriorated.

At the Soccsksargen area or Region 12, according to the PSA the provinces with most number of poor individuals are the following as based in rank:

1.    North Cotabato -  615, 923 (Population: 1,379, 747 (2015)

2.    South Cotabato – 411, 404

3.    Sultan Kudarat -   393, 833

4.    Sarangani          - 233, 164

Now with all the official data I culled, who was then stupid, ha ha ha, between Mortz Ortigoza and Angelo Palmones?

Salamabit, the son of a gun had the gall to call me “boy” or “utoy” in Tagalog. Now who is between us got a “boy” understanding of the issues?

***

To those who have shallow understanding about Gross Domestic Product – Per Capita Income (GDP-PCI) and inflation barometer juxtaposed on those who lived in the rural cheaper cost of living (COL) North Cotabato Province and the jungle asphalt expensive COL Metro Manila, here the findings of the PSA :

As of the 2015 Poverty Census, the national annual per capita poverty threshold is PhP21, 753 per individual. This rises to PhP108,765 for a family of five. It means P21,753 multiplied by 5 equals PhP108, 765.

In short, the breadwinner of a five-person nuclear family must earn PhP9,063.75  (PhP108.7 divided by 12 months) every month in order to meet his or her brood’s basic food and non-food needs. Failing this, that family is considered to be poor.

The National Capital Region (NCR or Metro Manila) has the highest annual per capita poverty threshold (APCT) at PhP25,007, and MIMAROPA (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon, and Palawan) the lowest at PhP20,224. 
This means that it is most expensive to live above the poverty threshold in NCR, and least expensive in MIMAROPA vis-à-vis the price of goods and services in the area.

Example is the Php50 a kilo of three pomelos that I bought last year when I was in Barangay New Rizal, M’lang, Cotabato. One of these pomelos is priced at P150 each at  the grocery store of some malls in Luzon.

Pomelo was cheaper in North Cotabato because people plant it there. It was expensive in Luzon because merchants have to pay the freight cost in land, air, or sea hauling and the middlemen before it reaches its destination.

That’s how APCT was or is being used to compare the COL in a local government unit in the Philippines.

Among the 81 provinces, Batanes had the highest annual per capita poverty threshold in 2015 at PhP29,118 followed by Zambales at PhP26,473, Cavite at PhP24,882, and Bataan at PhP24,770.

Tawi-Tawi meanwhile had the lowest poverty threshold at PhP16,586, followed by La Union at PhP19,045, Palawan at PhP19,435, Marinduque at PhP19,722, and Occidental Mindoro at PhP19,994.

It means goods and services to those provinces that were cited are cheaper thus the lowest APCT.

Compared to the PhP25,007 APCT Metro Manila, PhP20,555 APCT North Cotabato has its money values reduced because goods and services there are cheaper.

Despite the APCT of North Cotabato, PSA cited that it is still No.7 of the poorest of the 81 provinces in the Philippines.

The problem of North Cotabato I can surmised is the lethargic number of investors putting shop there, the incapacity of the provincial and local governments to provide incentives for businessmen, peace and order situation or just sheer fault of the power that be there to provide a linchpin, say infrastructure like an airport, for the economic growth there.  

Let’s cite an example: North Cotabato endures the scarcity of employment because the already constructed airport in M’lang, that could be a spark plug for more egress and ingress of goods and services in the province, remain a pipe dream because Governor Lala Talino procrastinate to its opening as hurled to her by critics.

One of them was former governor and the present Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol who told me during the 2016 presidential campaign in Dagupan City that what the airport needs to serve the province is for the lady governor to sign the proverbial dotted lines of a public document for it to become operational.

With an airport in M’lang, more pomelos, as my hypothetical example, will not rot there but instead more farmers will shift to pomelo selling instead of the cheaper palay or rubber's latex because C-130 cargo planes from companies like Aboitiz could ferry these goods to Visayas and Luzon.

It gives more jobs to the people there and it will give justice to us Luzon residents not to buy Php150 a piece of pomelo but instead P50 each fruit because of the spike of the supply of the tastiest mouth watering citrus marvel.


READ MY OTHER ARTICLE:

      Politicos Attack Rivals as Campaign Period Starts

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)