Filipinos Were Better-Off During Duterte than Marcos Admin

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

 Below was my brief conversation with a town mate in Cotabato Province where I spent some decades of my younger years:

Dr. Maria Theresa Tejada-Gundaya: We have been studying how much we earn per hectare (of palay). If we harvest at least 60 sacks per hectare for example, we only have P10, 000 net per hectare. That is for six months since we only plant twice a year. Ten thousand pesos divided by 180 days, we only earn P56 per day. How could we possibly live or survive if our source of income depends on farming alone? Sad but it's reality.

Former President Rodrigo Duterte (left, photo) and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.(Photo credit: Yahoo)

 Me: I felt sorry for the pathetic plight of the Filipino farmers. Your calculation is P1,666 a month earning for a peasant. Good I didn’t become a farmer tilling our humble lot in Cotabato otherwise I’m still a bachelor since I could not feed a family.

Dr. Tejada: In 1980's our parents even exported rice to Vietnam and Cambodia, that is where they got the money to send five of us siblings to college in Manila. Now we are the ones importing rice from Vietnam and Cambodia.

(The comment of Tess came from my post on those poor farmers’ force to sell their land to developers like Sen. Cynthia Villar because the family of the solon buy it expensively than what the land could lousily produce through the staple. The farmers, I added, can use the dough, er, money to buy cheaper lands somewhere or send their love ones overseas to work).

***

The price of red onion is P325 a kilo now while it was P85 per kilo during the time of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

A minimum wage earner in Mindanao and Northern Luzon who earns P350 a day will be struggling for the wild spike of the onions and other basic commodities.

The good thing about Duterte he allowed more importation of onions for example to ease up the plight of the Pinoys.

President Marcos economics managers should know about EQUILIBRIUM our economics teachers mentor to us in high school and college where the onion farmers in the 22 provinces should meet somewhere about a common price.

For farm gate price of red onions at P100 and retail price in the market of the commodity at P150, for instance, could be satisfactory between the planter and the buyer for a meeting of mind.

This could happen on the amount of the tariff the government could impose to the importers of onions in the country.

The present dilemma is insane. How could half-a-million (my hypothetical estimate) planters and workers of the staple hold hostage the 109.5 million Filipino- consumers on this inflationary pricing?

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When I cracked a joke about how poor in grammar some teachers and their principal in a school in the boondock ran by the Department of Education, one of the countless comments in the social media I got was from an alumnus of the University of the Philippines and a person of high standing in the community.

Before I post here the comment of my friend, who requested for anonymity, here’s my humor:

Sa isang malayong paaralan na pag- aari ng DepEd ay may isang guro na narinig na tumatawag sa kanyang mga estudyante.

GURO - 1: Hey childs! All of you come here. Childs! Childs!

Narinig ito ng isa pang Guro at pinuna siya.

GURO - 2: Hala naku mare! Dapat childrens kasi plural.

Narinig ito ng principal at pinuna silang dalawa dahil mali ang mga grammar nila.

PRINCIPAL: Teka, anong childs? Anong childrens? My goodness, what kind of English do you has?!

Here’s the comment of my pal:

“Alam mo ba kaya di ko itinuloy and MaEd (Master in Education) ko nawalan ako ng gana kasi iyong head ng program na Education ay sadyang nakakasukang mag-Ingles”.

He told me that college was the Pangasinan State University.

“Kaya ko pa ang funny accent niya pero ang grammar atrocious,” he said why he forego his intention to finish his graduate school there.

What happened to the leadership there in the PSU? I thought your professors there possess Ph.D or Doctor of Philosophy as government scholars to mold high quality education for your wards in the tertiary? What happened to the leadership of exiting President Dexter Buted in case there was truth to the discontentment of this student?